Hyrule Compendium
by fioreofthemarch
Summary: Hyrule is a land of legend. The people speak of their Princess, of their Hero. But once in a while, they speak of themselves. An anthology set in BOTWs Hyrule, exploring its history, people, and places from 10,000 years in the past, to the present and burgeoning future. One-shots, side stories, in-world texts, and more, featuring Link, Zelda, and Hyrule's diverse cast of characters
1. A Hyrulean Welcome, Index

**A/N:** Hey everyone!. Hyrule Compendium is a 'lore anthology' set in BOTW Hyrule, and is basically where I will be putting all my one-shots/extended episodes from now on. The focus of this fic is the lore/history of Hyrule, as well as its characters. It is set in the same universe as FTGU and TBB, and as such, it is a canonically Zelink fic. While Link and Zelda are not the main focus, they will pop up from time to time (as in the first story!)

I'll be updating this fortnightly (sometimes weekly), and have it marked as complete as each update will be a standalone story.

I really hope you enjoy this work! Thank you so much for reading :)

* * *

 _There is a legend, passed from tree to tree, laden in the very ground. Three golden goddesses descended upon the chaos..._

 _They gave this kingdom to us, leaving it empty and ready to be filled. Across ten thousand, thousand years, and with as many voices or more, we made it whole._

 _We made it a deafening chorus and a secreted whisper. A raging battle and an inner fight. Waking in the morning and striving to survive until the night. This kingdom is gods and legends and quests and failures. It is magic and mystery, prayer and practice. It is an opened chest, a dark dungeon, the recipe for a cake, the squeal of a child. It is every story told, shared, passed on, made new._

 _We speak of our heroes, of our monarchs, of our calamities. But sometimes, once in a while, huddled around a fire or passing time on the road: we speak of ourselves._

 _This is where it starts. This kingdom of Hyrule._

* * *

 **Hyrule Compendium: Index**

 **1.** **Where the World Ends | Link and Zelda | Chapters 2-4**

 _Setting out to explore the Lomei Labyrinths dotted around the edge of Hyrule, Link and Zelda uncover clues_  
 _that point towards their original purpose and the great secret that they contain._

* * *

 **2\. A Traveller's Guide to Hyrule Reborn | Books and Letters | Chapter 5**

 _With the Calamity a distant memory, and many new sights to see in flourishing Hyrule, a pair of travellers set out to write the Kingdom's first travel guide._

* * *

Updated as more chapters are posted...


	2. Where the World Ends, Ch 1

_**Shrine Quest #3: Trial of the Labyrinth**_

 _When you approached the curious ruins on the island in the Akkala Sea, you heard a voice speak to you. It told you that you will be granted a blessing if you_ _ **travel through the island maze.**_

* * *

 **Link and Zelda I:  
Where the World Ends**

 **Chapter 1**

* * *

The whirring macroscopic Sheikah goggles were passed from hand to hand and peered through with squinting eyes. First Link, humming to himself in concern, then Zelda, muttering, _look at that, it must be hundreds of feet across_ , and finally, the goggles' owner, Robbie, restrapping them to his face.

They stood facing north on a cliff face in Deep Akkala, looking out at the silvery Akkalan Sea. Here, the land was full, swollen. Autumnal trees lined the paths, and during the entire journey from Akkala Citadel to the cliff face, the ground had felt as though it were rising, as though leading them somewhere. Zelda had called it an apotheosis. Link had said he certainly hoped so. Autumn in Akkala meant storms, some lasting days, and it was overall a trying part of the country to travel through.

The sun was low on the horizon. Its rays split the fog hugging the sea surface and, a great monolith made itself known.

It rose out of the sea, maybe one hundred, or two hundred feet high. Half a mile wide, or wider, and who knows how deep. Its walls were black, foreboding, and completely unblemished. However long the sea had lapped at the base of the structure, it had not eroded a single grain of its stone. Was it stone?

With a final hum, Zelda pulled her Sheikah Slate from her belt and waited for the screen to flicker on. On the map, she found it - _Lomei Labyrinth Island._

"What do we know about the Lomei?" she asked.

"Absolutely nothing," Robbie answered. "If there were records on them before the Calamity, I didn't come across them. There are none now."

"We know they built _that_ ," Link chimed in. "And that one of your Monks took residence within it." He gave Robbie a gentle nudge on the shoulder, and the old researcher harrumphed.

" _I_ had nothing to do with it. If the Monks claimed this labyrinth, then the Lomei have been gone for at least 10,000 years."

Lomei. _Lo-may_. Zelda turned the name over on her tongue, testing it, trying to feel the way it might have been said. She felt for a moment that she could breathe life back into that word - or that name, rather, for it was a name. Just like _Hylian_ , or _Hyrulean_. An entire people summarised in a few syllables. The desire to know them burned within her.

"I wonder what's inside. What the Lomei might have left behind," she said, stopping to take a few photos of the monolith.

"Danger," Link answered for her. By his scowl, it was clear he had made up his mind; this cliff was as far north as they would go. "The only way in is via paraglider and-"

"Then it should be no problem," Zelda clipped. Link's scowl deepened, his eyes momentarily descending to the paraglider hooked on her belt, blue, to match the red one on his own belt. She'd had it for years, it was even Rito-made, but admittedly using a paraglider was no easy feat, and Zelda had nothing close to the physical ability of Link. Jumping from a tower, or gliding down a sloping hill, or soaring through an updraft maybe, just maybe, he was happy to tolerate. But leaping from a cliff over a half-frozen sea towards an ancient, unknown structure?

"It's dangerous," Link reiterated. Robbie hovered at an uncrossable distance, deliberately neutral but curious enough not to give them their privacy. He wore a small smile but shook his head when Zelda looked at him. _Link_ _'s right_ , he mouthed.

Zelda turned back towards the sea, watching the chopping waves, and the faint and perhaps imagined wavering of the monolith.

They had travelled so far, across half the kingdom to find this place; Zelda would not let _danger_ stop them now. She resecured her Sheikah Slate and reached for her paraglider, and before Link could protest, she leapt.

Her paraglider caught the wind with a victorious flap of rippling fabric, and Zelda was carried gently across the strait towards the labyrinth. A similar sound of opening fabric followed behind her, and she glanced over her shoulder to see Link gliding along with his own paraglider, his taut frown peeking through the hair that had been blown across his face.

They landed smoothly at the labyrinth entrance, though Zelda found herself rubbing her sore arms afterwards. The entrance was little more than a gap in the stone, a small break in a curtain to let them in. A hundred feet below the waves lapped at the base of the island, and at their feet was a grate, about a foot square, that looked to lead down to some inaccessible underbelly. Looking back towards the Akkalan Cliffs, Zelda waved to Robbie to signal they had landed safely. He returned a quick solute and disappeared back to his lab.

"What do you think he thinks of us?" Zelda felt compelled to ask, still looking back to the cliffs. It was a strange question. It was not one of if they liked each other; she had known Robbie all her life. In the time before, he had been only a few years older than herself, and they had worked together for many years. By the look on Link's face - that subtle threading of the brows, a bit lip - she could tell he was equally perplexed.

"As a Sheikah, I mean," Zelda clarified. "What do you think he thinks of _us_ , the Hylians?"

"I don't know that he thinks anything."

Zelda shook her head. "He does. If not him, then his people. We've never asked."

Casually, playfully, Link took hold of her arm and spun her around to face inwards, towards the winding corridors of the labyrinth. "I always forget what exploring does to you," he smiled. "It makes you question everything."

"I'm a researcher, shouldn't I question everything?"

"Well let's focus on one question at a time." Link ran a hand over the mouldy stone, uncovering some of the patternings underneath. Under his palm, two loosely carved spirals were revealed. He paused, squinted, and letting his hand fall he said, "Finding the centre of this maze."

For two, perhaps three hours they walked, hands to the left wall to make sure they explored the labyrinth's full extent. They found little; a handful of already opened chests, a dead guardian (along with a few dead Skywatcher Guardians that were resting atop the maze's high stone walls), moss and more moss. Link admitted that he had come here once and only once before. He had found and plundered the now open chests ("Nothing in them that I didn't already have"), tiptoed around the Guardian Stalker and then left out of frustration. The centre was impossible to reach, or at least it had seemed that way once an Akkalan storm broke and the labyrinth began to flood somewhat, the water having nowhere to drain.

"The map was _no_ help," he added in justification. It was not often that he gave up.

"Well, some of the walls are false," Zelda noted as they passed under an archway in one of the high walls. She pointed to the map on the Sheikah Slate. "See? You can't see it here. It's as if we simply passed through."

"Anyway, I didn't want to mess around." He loped an arm around her shoulders. "What could be in that Shrine that was more important than going to get _you_?"

Zelda gently pried herself free. "I'm flattered, but what we know is if the Sheikah put a Shrine _here_ , in one of the most isolated parts of Hyrule and at the centre of a Guardian protected labyrinth, then it has to contain one of the most valuable treasures they own."

As she said this, the centre of the maze finally came into view. Up a flight of stairs and in a central dais, the low-glow of ancient stone and magic could be seen. Link jogged happily over to the Shrine and patted the console at its entrance.

"Why don't we find out?" he grinned.

"Why don't _you_ find out?" Zelda corrected. "I know these weren't built for me." She handed him the Sheikah Slate with a sigh.

Link returned in less than five minutes, carrying what looked like some ghastly wild animal under his arm and wearing a sheepish grin.

"Well, what was inside?" Zelda asked impatiently.

"A monk named Tu Kah'loh, a bit of water and... _this_!" he held up the wild animal, which Zelda realised then was nothing but a helm. An ugly, barbaric looking helm. She could have stamped her feet.

" _That's_ what we came here for? A helmet with a ridiculous red mane and tusks like a boar?"

"You said it yourself, this is a treasured artefact. Maybe _this_ what the Sheikah think of us." Link put the helm on and chuckled to himself, teasing out a few strands of its fire-red mane. "Maybe this is all one big joke, and we're the children being fooled."

"At least let me take a photo for the compendium. _Don't_ smile," Zelda was giggling too now. "I said _don't_. This is serious. This is _research_."

Shaking from her laughter, Zelda took the photo and read the description: _Armor once favoured by an ancient warlike tribe from the Faron region._ It was something to go off at least. The Faron region was known for both its tumultuous history and lack of records, perhaps causally related.

They returned quickly to the labyrinth entrance and found that the grate there now had a stream of air roaring out of it, maybe twenty feet high. Zelda readied her paraglider, noting immediately that this updraft was their passage back to the Akkalan Cliffs. Fiddling with the clasp at her belt, she couldn't help but ramble.

"I still don't understand. Why build this at all? Why put a shrine here? There's so much to ask that I don't know where to start."

Link was unphased. "Maybe it was just a trial, like all the others. Could be the Lomei weren't a people. Just a name. Unless this was used for something else."

"Something else. I don't know, maybe." Zelda frowned. Her paraglider ready, she made to step onto the grate. But where the grate once had been was only air, and her foot fell through! She plummeted down through the gap, air escaping her lungs in a shrill scream. There was a cry out from above – _Zelda!_ \- but her instincts took control, and she thrashed her paraglider open just in time to slow her fall. Zelda landed on cold, hard stone, collapsing and rolling across it. Dizzied, she pulled herself up and to her knees, finding a panicked Link landing beside her.

The room they had found was dark, barely illuminated, the vast empty space broken up by shadows of organic looking forms.

Forms that, one by one, began to awaken, their bodies flashing blue and then orange, red beady eyes filling the space like stars. Guardians. A horde of hidden, living Guardians. Not possessed anymore - they had survived Ganon's fall, perhaps because they were sleeping, or hidden so well - and so in silence, they looked on at the benign pair who had landed in their domain.

Neither Link nor Zelda could move, and the only sounds they made were protracted breaths. At last, when they realised they were not in danger, Link spoke.

"This is what I'd call _something else_."

* * *

 _When the sliding doors of the Elders' House close, a great silence follows. I hear the snap, like a whip. It goes through us. What once was raucous chatting between two meeting parties is now silence. The Faronites even manage to sit still as well as quiet, waiting for one of our people to speak. Even so, the room is rank, the air full, pressed in close. The odours come in tiers of strength and repugnance. Burnt flesh is first; it permeates the barbarians that have come to meet us. Then blood, and sweat on their skin, and the filth no doubt beneath their tunics. Then, cured leather and the smoke that made it, the resin and dye used to paint their bodies, the faint mustiness of the lynel fur they wear. Many of them have rotten teeth, their breath smelling of rotting meat, fermented milk._

 _It's so different from blank way Kakariko usually smells to me. Outsiders complement how clear the air is here, and how much they like the earthy pines or the smell of straw at their feet. But I was born here, so it is little more than a baseline rather than an escape. This new landscape of odours, fragrances even, is somewhat...alluring._

 _After a few moments of the silence, Monk Koshia gathers his hands into his sleeves, clears his throat, and smiles. I feel the room ease. He's good at that. The Faronites watch his every action, waiting for hostility, but he never gives it. All Monks learn to keep their exterior as clear and inscrutable as possible. We are not the soulless servants the outsiders think us to be, but something more like vessels, like unused parchment to be filled only with the necessary candour. We cannot be questioned because we say nothing except the Goddess' praise._

 _Koshia speaks slowly and quietly, such that I sense our guests leaning forward. "Before we begin, I would like to pay my respects to our forebears and predecessors, of both the Sheikah and Faronite peoples. We are meeting on ancient land, to settle an ancient dispute and rekindle a partnership, and for this blessing, we give thanks to Hylia, and pay our respects to our elders both past, present and emerging."_

 _As he speaks, I take stock of the room. The Faronites fill most of the room, sitting cross-legged on the floor. It seems like only their leaders, and perhaps some of their respected warriors are here. By their subtly different armour, I can see that multiple tribes are in attendance. The Zonai are closest to the front, the best armoured, then the Lurei, kitted out for warmer weather. The Thyphlo as well, hidden at the back, and then spotted among them are the Lomei, the nomads. There are others too that I cannot name, or cannot recall the names of. The Monks in attendance sit on the dais, and I am slotted in at the back. Lastly, the elders are seated along the back wall, framed by a huge tapestry depicting the map of our Kingdom. Normally, they lead all discussions about the future of our tribe, but in this case, that discussion has already taken place. By the Elders' decree, we will make peace with the Faronites, and unite to combat the looming threat of Ganon's return. Numerous such pacts have been made so far, and many peoples have committed to aiding the preparations for the fight._

 _It is the monks' duty to oversee then what form these preparations will take. Of course, not all of us attend this meeting. There are too many of us to name let alone fit into this small house, and so only the most senior are here. But my teacher, Ka'loh, snuck me in to observe. He wants me to see that a Monk's duty is both to Hylia and to the tribe and that this is the best way for it._

 _Koshi drones on. "As you know, the Seer has been given a prophecy of a coming calamity, which we know to be the return of Ganon. It has only been several hundred years since the previous awakening, and thankfully Hyrule was swiftly protected by our then Queen and Hero. In this present day, we are blessed with a skilled Princess, but we are yet to meet our Hero. We also do not know from where Ganon will arrive. Regardless, we need strong fighters, of which I'm sure the Faronites can provide."_

 _An idea catches on my tongue, but I cannot speak. After all, I'm not even meant to be here. I whisper it to Ka'loh, who smiles and immediately stands. He bows quickly._

" _Revered Koshia, if I may speak?"_

 _Koshia ushers him on._

" _Faronite structures fill our landscape, some thought to predate even Hyrule itself." He turned to the tribes. "We know of your prowess and skill in masonry, and with our new unified Hyrule, we could supply you with the materials needed. What if your peoples were to construct something; a fortress perhaps, to aid in the fight."_

 _The Faronites are in immediate agreement, such that I did not even mind not being given any credit. As I scan the crowd a second time, a face catches my eye. A young man, wearing a red-fur headdress, whispering and grinning. The joy on his face, and the excitement. I am captivated by it. Such freedom._

 _He sees my staring eyes, and grins, and then winks! I look away, and empty my thoughts, my hands shaking in my lap._

 _I am a Monk, I tell myself. If not by choice then by destiny. I cannot want. I cannot need._

 _And then the moment passes._


	3. Where the World Ends, Ch 2

**Link and Zelda I:  
** **Where the World Ends** **  
**

 **Chapter 2**

* * *

The mossy stone of the ancient pillar pressed cold into Zelda's back. When she looked up, a carved dragon bared its teeth above her. Statues like this were found all throughout the Zonai Ruins, and indeed all of Faron itself. Zelda cast a glance left to where Link was hiding behind a twin pillar on the other side of the overgrown path, peering around the edge of the stone at the ruins beyond.

"Has Garini given the signal?" she asked.

"He's hardly moving," Link answered. "He poked one of the Bokoblin's lean-tos about a minute ago and is still waiting to see if any will come out."

Patience wearing thin, Zelda turned to peer around her own pillar and sighed. Standing in the empty Bokoblin camp was a young Lurelin man, clutching a long fishing spear and shaking in his boots. Garini was a far cry from the eager explorer they had met upon their arrival in Lurelin Village. Overhearing that a pair of newcomers were meeting with Elder Rozel for knowledge of Faron's ancient tribes, Garini had marched promptly over to introduce himself as 'Lurelin's leading self-trained expert on ancient Faron', with a weak emphasis on _self-trained._

"Wait a minute!" he'd cried on seeing Link. "It's you, mystery guy! Remember? You helped me collect those shards, near the Palmorae Ruins." And then his face had fallen. "O-oh but, you're with...t-the Queen! And you're Prince Consort a-and... oh! Forgive me! I didn't mean to shout earlier!"

Zelda had held out a hand and smiled wide, determined to diffuse the awkwardness with beaming politeness. "No need to apologise! Out here, we're just a pair of researchers, like yourself."

"Oh, well, I'm not one _really_ ," Garini said as he nervously shook her hand. "Although I heard about the Royal Academy up north. I wanted to apply, I did. But my wife and I have a little one now, and the Elder needs us here and-"

"Help them, Garini," Elder Rozel interjected. "They will at least need a guide." He turned to Link and Zelda and gave a small bow, side-eyeing Garini as he said, "Forgive our young Garini, Your Majesties. The people of Lurelin have a tradition of storytelling."

After that, Garini had led them north into the dense Faron forests until they reached the fabled Zonai Ruins. As they walked, Garini told them that written record of the Faronite tribes was scarce, and most of what survived were passed down through oral tradition. He could confirm, however, that the Barbarian helm Link and Zelda had found at Lomei Labyrinth was indeed from Faron, but from what tribe it was impossible to tell. And he had absolutely no idea why a Sheikah Shrine lay at the maze's centre, _or_ why a horde of Guardians was kept beneath. That was when he'd spotted the Bokoblin camp, and announced it was his duty to protect his Queen and Prince Consort.

"Lurelinites are the custodians of the Spring of Courage after all!" Garini had muttered to himself as he advanced into the camp. "So we must...have...some…"

Even a seasonal traveller would be able to tell that the camp was empty, but Zelda wanted to humour their guide.

"I'm going," Link said. He drew his sword and walked out into the clearing. Zelda decided then that she should follow, and at least ready herself for a fight, as unlikely as one would be. She let her power flow through her hands, feeling them warm, her flesh held in anticipation. She was not the strongest mage - both her inherited magic and the common magics of Hyrule were still so new to her - but she liked to feel prepared. She grabbed the crossbow at her belt and followed Link into the camp.

Garini startled as Link and Zelda approached, lanky arms flailing for his spear as it fell from his grip, his too-long hair falling across his face. Zelda stifled a laugh, but Link furrowed his brow and gave Garini a clap on the back.

"So, the ruins?" he clipped.

"Right, of course. No need for combat," Garini said with some relief. He nodded to the crossbow in Zelda's hands. "Though I'm sure that would be very interesting, in action."

Link lazily sheathed his sword. "I think these ruins have been empty for a while, Garini." As he spoke, there was a rustle in a nearby tent, and stumbling out through the tent flaps was a sleepy-looking bokoblin. Garini shrieked, Link drew his sword once more, and Zelda trained her crossbow on the monster's face. It froze, mouth dropped open, and Zelda realised then that it was unarmed.

"K-kill it!" Garini cried. Link moved forward, but Zelda out-paced him. Quick and precise, she fired a bolt of energy with the crossbow at the bokoblin's feet. It flew backwards, screeching before landing hard on the dirt.

"Go on, get out of here!" she hissed. "Your crew have moved on. Don't let us find you again!"

The bokoblin was gone in an instant, scurrying up and over a nearby hill.

"No need for combat," Zelda repeated. "We're here on a survey, I will not have you two soiling your clothes with monster blood."

With that, their expedition continued. Few mages fought with _weapons_ , Zelda reflected. Many were purists, refusing even a staff. She wondered how the ancient mages fought, if they were well-respected, how they were trained. Impa had told her that the golden age of Sheikah technology had been brought on in part by breakthroughs in the understanding of Sheikah magic. But that didn't answer her real question: what did people _think_ of them? Were the mages feared?

Finally, they reached the innermost part of the ruins, to find what Garini had been leading them to; carvings in stone like the ones of the statues, and like those they had seen in Lomei Labyrinth Island.

Link pointed to a pair of mirrored swirls into the stone. "There, that's what we saw on Lomei."

Garini examined the markings and frowned. "I'll be honest, I don't know much about the symbols, only that they survived. We call it the mark of Faron and use it on our buildings and flags, but as to what they really mean…"

"It reminds me of something," Link muttered. "Like I've seen it before...or in some dream…"

He cast Zelda a knowing look, and she sensed the words he had not said and could not say in front of Garini. _Or some past life_.

"They're on most old Faronite structures, so you might have seen it around," Garini said. "What it tells us is that Lomei Island was built by our people. Why they would put it in _Akkala_...well, do you have any theories?"

"No," Zelda admitted sadly. "Is there any way for us to date the labyrinths? I've heard that some ruins pre-date even Hyrule itself."

"Whatever the truth, these places are _old_ ," Garini nodded. "But funny you've been to Lomei Island. I reckon those are the newest."

"The newest?"

Garini gestured around them, to the crumbling stone and weed-creeped paths of the Zonai Ruins. "They don't look like this do they? When those labyrinths were built, this place was long gone. My people were already dying." He clutched his spear close to his chest, suddenly solemn. "Anyway, that's all I know. I wish I could give you more."

"It's okay, thank you Garini," Zelda said softly. "You cannot be blamed for the hand history has dealt."

Garini chuckled. "I guess that's the way this Kingdom is, hey? Everything goes real well and then - _crash_ \- big monster comes to tear it all up."

"Never too late to rebuild," Link said, appearing at their side them with the Sheikah Slate in hand. He had a new location selected on the map, and Zelda saw that it was in the middle of the desert. He held it up for Garini. "That's another one isn't it?"

"South Lomei Labyrinth," Garini nodded.

"There's two of them?" Zelda asked.

"Not two," Garini grinned. " _Three_. And I don't envy you. They're not exactly easy to reach."

Their next steps were decided immediately: Link and Zelda parted ways with Garini and promised to report their any findings from the other labyrinths directly to him. He had been right about South Lomei Labyrinth, however; it lay in the very southeastern tip of Gerudo Desert, across a stretch of sands so laborious and besieged by storms that even the Sheikah Slate could not map them. It took Link and Zelda two whole weeks to travel from Lurelin to the second Labyrinth, even though the two were comparatively close by.

Once they reached the entrance of this new labyrinth, Link noticed the carvings immediately. Swirls, just like those on Lomei Island, just like those in Lurelin, and the Zonai Ruins. They found more and more of the markings as they worked their way into the labyrinth. The place was overrun by bokoblins and Malice - Zelda's crossbow and Link's sword both saw a fair share of use as they neared the maze's centre - but strangely, they met no Guardians.

"Malice forms where Ganon corrupts, and yet there are no Guardians here," Zelda noted. She racked her brain for a possible explanation, but it was Link who offered the answer.

"Maybe they left," he shrugged.

"Pardon?"

"Well, it's not like they could leave Lomei Island. _Here_ , all they'd need to do is walk away. Maybe the Guardians here left, or were destroyed by the Gerudo."

"It would explain the Malice…" Zelda said.

They reached the Shrine chamber, much to Zelda's relief. Exhausted, she sat down against the stone wall and drained her waterskin, the water warm and murky.

"I'll be back in a minute," Link said, crouching down to give her a kiss on the forehead, but Zelda didn't hear him and barely felt him. Beside her, the Shrine flashed orange, then blue, and Link disappeared inside. Drifting in the heat, she took another sip, and let herself fall into a light slumber.

Zelda awoke to see a barbarian standing over her, with a red mane and rank old clothes. She screamed, scurrying along the floor away from him, but shuddered to a halt when she realised it was just Link, dressed up in the spoils he had no doubt pulled from the Shrine. He laughed and apologised as he helped her stand.

"More armour from Faron," he said proudly. He was still wearing the helm they had found on Lomei Island, but now a pair of leather arm wraps, a leather skirt and a bolero with fur-lined sleeves worn over his blue tunic. Zelda squinted at him, suddenly captivated. Link, believing the look to be something like infatuation, grinned wider and posed.

"Pretty cool, huh?" he said.

Zelda could not look away. "You look familiar, somehow."

"We spend every day together. Shouldn't I look familiar?"

"No...something else…Wait!" She startled. "Did you talk to the monk inside? They may have known about this place, about the tribes!"

"Huh? Oh. No, I mean I don't usually get a chance, they just kind of…" Link made a wave motion with his hands, to signify the way the monks passed on.

"Well, we need to talk to one of them. Garini said there was one more Labyrinth, in Hebra." Zelda leapt to her feet, hands firm on her hips. "I think we're onto something here, Link. Something the Sheikah and the Faronites wanted us to find."

And then a wave of nausea washed over her, fierce as the desert heat. She knelt back down, breathless. "But not before we get some more water."

* * *

 _As I walk, I keep my head high. I observe the beauty of falling snow, no matter how heavy, or blinding. In the absence of will, I let my legs carry me forward. I feel the pain, but know it will not last, and so I move forward._

 _Each year, the Tabantha Tundra is said to kill one dozen travellers. It is so brutal, so unforgiving, so empty that only the truly hardy would travel to this place. The very northern tip is the most dangerous; aside from having the worst weather, its long, flat plains are devoid of any life, flora and fauna. If one gets lost, and travels too far north, they may never make it to civilisation again, for there is no civilisation in north Hebra. Only cliffs, and a blank, empty sea._

 _It is in this place that one of the labyrinths must be built. Ka'loh has sent me here as part of my training. Not only as a final test of my strength, but also to see the work of the Faronites, and to see where the world ends._

 _Each step north leaves another step behind, deep black holes in the snow that mark my steps. Lynels patrol these parts, but I manage to skirt around them. Many have been killed anyway, to make way for the workers and the transport of materials. In fact, this labyrinth has carved a path through the tundra, but it is not one I wish to follow. I am not meant to be seen, only to see._

 _I carry little with me, only basic provision and a staff for light and warmth. It burns blue - Sheikah flame, the mark of our magic. When I reach the summit of Mount Drena, I see what I have come for. The black, intricately carved stone of the labyrinth is an anomaly on the starch white landscape. Shapes move around its base, at work, some dressed all in white as I, others in every colour under the sky; the Faronites. In the years of our new truce, I have come to learn that each tribe under their nation wears its own colours, but that they are unified under the symbol of their Goddess._

 _It is surreal, to see the labyrinth rising out of the snow. It was, in part, my idea. A small spark that I dreamed up some years ago in that first meeting that Ka'loh passed on for me. I wonder what it will house, what its ultimate purpose will be. Another monk, Maag, designed these labyrinths. He wants them to be fortresses, the maze making them impenetrable to outsiders, but he forgets; predicament usurps our plans, again and again. All things find a purpose altered from their intended one. It is the way of our world._

 _From the mountain, I see another landmark. A Shrine. There is only one here for many miles. I see its orange light along the cliff face that rests in the shadow of Mount Drena. It is empty now. Once the Calamity passes, it will be filled with a test for the future hero. The thought worries me - I feel it despite not wanting too - for the_ current _hero has yet to make themselves known._

" _Quite the sight, hey?"_

 _The voice soars over the mountaintop, clear in the cold air. I half think I've imagined it. I spin, ready my staff, summon flame to my fingers, and the figure emerging from the snow throws up their hands._

" _Hey, hey, calm down little mageling." He steps forward, and I see; he is a Faronite. By the purple colouring of his armour, he is Lomei. Don't call me_ _mageline_ _, I want to tell him. I'm a Monk of the Sheikah, a servant of the Goddess, and if anything I'm more mage than mageling, at least. But I say nothing, for I recognise this Lomei._

 _He was at the meeting that Ka'loh snuck me into those years ago. I remember his smiling face, the way I yearned to be as free as he looked. He is older now, scruffy hairs on his face showing the end of adolescence, a scar here and there, but I know it is him. He has no right to call me little, for I am taller than him by a head, but I don't say that either._

" _Sorry if I startled you," he adds to fill the silence. I put down my staff and empty my hands of my magic to show I am no longer hostile._

" _I wasn't expecting anyone else up here," I say. I should apologise, but the words are backed up in my throat._

 _The Lomei shrugs and looks towards the labyrinth. "Maybe we came here for the same reason."_

 _For a moment we stand, still at an awkward distance, and look down towards the labyrinth. Then, the Lomei approaches_ _,_ _stands by my side._

" _It's beautiful," I say quietly, allowing myself one glance towards him. His eyes are so bright, they burst from this blonde hair and red mane._

" _It certainly is extravagant. Though, my people think it is too much."_

" _Too much!" I laugh. "Look at all the monuments you've left scattered around!"_

" _Monuments crumble and disappear, as they should. The Zonai Palace was a ruin before my father's father was born. What makes these mazes any different?"_

" _They can serve a dual purpose. They will be manned by our Guardians-"_

" _And when Ganon comes, what purpose will the labyrinth serve?"_

" _Not everything needs to be about Ganon…" I mutter and am surprised to hear the Lomei laugh._

" _That we agree on, mage." He looks me in the eye, claps me on the back. I almost fall from the mountain, but steady myself and show no reaction beyond a restrained smile. The Lomei then puts a hand on the hilt of his broadsword. "Still, I look forward to the fight! What about you?"_

" _I'm not much of a fighter," I answer._

" _Surely you must be, you're a mage."_

" _All monks are. We have to be."_

 _This catches his attention, and I know I have gotten myself into trouble._

" _I'd like to see a mage fight," he beams. "We should find a camp of bokoblins…"_

" _I hear there are lynel in these parts," I say sheepishly. I can't help it now. His enthusiasm is pulling me from myself. Hearing this, the Lomei all but draws his sword._

" _Even better!"_

 _We walk down the mountain together, towards the valley where I had seen the Silver Lynel. The entire way, the Lomei plies me for tidbits about my people._

" _So you're the ones powering those towers, and the Shrines, and those great mechanical beasts?" he asks. He isn't teasing like I expect, but seems genuinely interested._

" _Our duty is to the Sheikah empire, and to its blessings. Our magic allows us to supplement the advancements being made, but I am just a Monk. I'm a...watcher, more than a doer." I am rambling, saying too much, but I don't care now. I want to talk, and I want to talk to him._

" _You don't seem like a watcher," he tells me with a smile, and then, on the horizon, we see it._

 _The Lynel is prowling the flats, broad, curved sword held ready, an emblazoned shield at its back. My new found laconic state flows from me, and I tense._ _I have trained in combat, in the martial use of magic, but_ _I've never fought a lynel. Never fought anything more than the odd bokoblin! The Lomei turns to me._

" _Let's go! You provide cover, I'll take it down!"_

" _Got it!" I say, having not really gotten it. I ready myself again, reach for my staff, and scurry across the field to a vantage point between the Lomei and the Lynel. Perhaps I can distract it at least, stun it with a fireball or two. The Lomei rushes in, his sword held at the ready, and fights like no other man I have ever seen. I lob a few lances of energy towards the beast, once even managing to stagger it, but the Lomei does most of the work. Not ten minutes later, the Lynel is dead, and the Lomei is sauntering back to me with little more than a cut on his arm._

" _Are you hurt?" I ask._

 _The Lomei looks at his arm and scoffs. "This? No. This was practice. Did you see the way it roared, when you hit its flank? Fantastic!"_

 _I rock back on my heels, lean against my staff, try to sound casual. "Yeah, well, I suppose."_

 _This just makes the Lomei laugh. "I can't wait to tell my father. A Sheikah Monk helped me kill a lynel! That'll make me stand out at that fancy knight school they're sending us to."_

" _Wait, you're going to the Hylian Academy?"_

" _To join the fight, yes, as soon as this labyrinth is complete. My father says there is a forest there too, near the Castle, that once belonged to our ancestors. I have my travelling to do yet. And you?"_

" _I should probably head back home, I have my training and…"_

" _Duties, of course. " He thrusts a hand forward, and when I take it, I am pulled into a percussive, brotherly hug. "A joy to meet you, mage. Perhaps when the Calamity comes, we will see each other again, on the battlefield?"_

" _Perhaps," I say coyly, and he gives me one final smile, before turning towards the labyrinth site, and disappearing into the heavy snow._

 _I stand there beside the Lynel for a long time, replaying the encounter, picking it apart, trying to understand how and why it had happened. For one hour I was no longer a monk. I was no longer faceless, no longer voiceless._

 _I wanted to promise the Lomei that I would be there with him when the Calamity came. But monks make promises only to the Goddess. I couldn't even give him my name. It belongs to my Shrine and my people alone. As much as I wanted to hear him say it, to stand close, and with a roguish grin whisper, Come then, fight by my side._

 _How long had it been since I had told another my name?_

 _What would it sound like to hear it spoken in return?_

 _Looking to where the Lomei had disappeared into the snow, I realise that in my pondering of own my name, I never asked for his._


	4. Where the World Ends, Ch 3

**Link and Zelda I:  
Where the World Ends**

 **Chapter 3**

* * *

The shrine in North Lomei Labyrinth greeted them in the same manner as all the others: with soft, sunset orange lights flickering dully against the towering monolith and the promise of spoils within.

This was the third labyrinth Link, and Zelda had travelled to in as many months and was by far the most difficult to both find and navigate. Their Lurelinite friend Garini had warned them of North Lomei's obscure location, but an entire month hiking through the Hebra wilderness served as a cruel reminder. It was a gruelling, uncomfortable journey, and turned monotonous beyond the edge of the tundra, with barely any landmarks and even fewer places to find shelter. They exchanged few words beyond necessity and occasionally found themselves bickering about the most inane of things: you walk too fast, _you_ walk too slow, we overslept again, I can't find my gloves, why isn't the fire lit, when will this snow let up, I don't know, Zelda, I don't control of the weather!

The long journey and its silences had given Zelda plenty of time to think, however. By the time North Lomei Labyrinth finally came into view, her disjointed thoughts and ideas had been wrangled into a working Link sat down by the shrine to clean his sword and take stock, she explained it to him.

"Both South and North Lomei Labyrinths are empty of Guardians, but not monsters or Malice."

Link held up his still blood-stained sword and rolled his shoulders painfully. "That much was clear by the camp of lizalfos living here."

It had been a particularly taxing fight, thanks in no part to their travel-induced exhaustion and the unnatural speed at which lizalfos moved. Zelda was glad to put them down. Some monsters she could feel empathy for - being an outsider was a familiar feeling to her - but lizalfos were nothing but _pests_. Zelda sat down by Link's side to rub his aching shoulders and went on.

"You suggested the Guardians in the labyrinths could have just walked away, and I now think that's exactly what happened. When the Calamity began, Ganon sent them off in search of settlements to terrorise. But _before_ that, when they weren't possessed, they would serve their normal purpose as protectors."

"What is there to protect? No one lives within a hundred miles of the labyrinths," Link said, in that gentle, open tone they had learned to take with each other; not disagreement, but rather inquisition.

"It's not _who_ they protected but what they protected them _from_. These labyrinths are forts, Link, guarding against the outside world!" Zelda opened up the Sheikah Slate to display the map and highlighted the three labyrinths: one in Akkala, one in Gerudo, and one in Hebra. "Why else place them so far apart, and so far away? Think about it. If you land off the Akkalan coast, what are you more likely to investigate? The cliffs, or the giant labyrinth?"

"And has anyone, or anything, invaded Hyrule in the past ten thousand years?"

"Not that we _know_ of."

Link's mouth bobbed open and closed as he processed her words. He took a deep breath and pursed his lips. "Alright, you have a point," he admitted. "It's kind of a null hypothesis though."

Zelda frowned at him. He'd been reading her research journals again. "That doesn't mean what you think it means."

Changing the subject, Link held up the Sheikah Slate. "You want to come along this time?"

"It's why we came here," Zelda answered.

Standing to approach the shrine, Link scanned the Sheikah Slate against the terminal, and the lights faded from orange to the familiar cerulean blue.

"Qaza Tokki Shrine," he read aloud. And then he smiled, "Cute name."

"If you say so," Zelda chuckled. They descended into the shrine together, pressed in close on the elevator, and were met with a broad, empty room with a single path leading up to the monk's dais. On either side were shallow pools of clear water and bulbous blue lamps. The walls were over 30 feet high, with otherworldly markings and constellations carved into the walls. Despite being thousands of years old, the space had an aura of being suspended, separated from the perils of the world above. It was a space of peace, like a tomb. Looking at the withered and austere monk at the far side of the room, Zelda thought perhaps it was one.

In the middle of the path was a Sheikah chest, which Link opened quickly. From it, he pulled the final pieces of the barbarian armour: leg wrappings and a pair of leather shoes. More of the same, and what they had been expecting. They approached the dais together, and Link reached forward to touch the iridescent barrier, which shattered around them in a cascade of light.

 _You have done well to reach this shrine. A hero rises to right the wrongs of Hyrule-_

Zelda stepped forward, seizing what may be her last chance to ask the questions she'd been holding onto since the first Labyrinth in Akkala "If I may, Monk Qaza Tokki, I wish to ask you a question."

The monk did not move, frozen in the cross-legged pose he must have held for thousands of years. His face, being hidden behind a Sheikah mask, betrayed nothing. However, after a moment the booming voice returned.

 _Ask._

"The ancient tribes of Faron. The Zonai, or the Lomei, or whatever their true names were. What do you know of them?"

Another pause, so long that Zelda was unsure if the monk even intended to answer until finally, he said,

 _They were our friends._

"What happened?"

"DId you cease to be friends?" Link pressed. "Is that why they're gone?"

 _They were always our friends. They simply ceased to be, like so many things._

Zelda spoke barely louder than a whisper. "...was it the Calamity?"

The monk said nothing. At her side, Link was staring intently into the monk's mask, and then he startled. Zelda knew immediately: _he's remembering_.

"I know you!" Link whispered to the monk. "Tokki! Tokki of Kakariko Village. I remember you. I tried to find you, after Mount Drena..." He staggered backwards, suddenly lost, reaching to Zelda for support. "Was it me? Or...another me…"

 _May the Goddess smile upon you, Hero of Hyrule_.

Without warning, a radiant orb passed between the monk and Link, embedding itself in his chest. The ritual done, the Monk began to fade. In his voice, ethereal though it was, Zelda sensed the faintest hint of sorrow.

"I knew him," Link muttered. " _How_?"

"A shadow of a past incarnation, perhaps? Qaza Tokki must have been important. I wish we could have asked more."

This seemed sufficient explanation for now and Link relaxed. Zelda turned her attention back to what they had learned: the Sheikah and the Faronites had been allies. Flicking through the Sheikah Slate, she turned to one of the only pieces of evidence of the ancient Sheikah she had; the tapestry that hung in Kakariko Village, depicting the first calamity.

She felt her breath quicken, a small gasp escaping her. "Link, do you mind assembling the armour? Wearing it over your tunic, perhaps?"

Still a little dazed, Link obliged without a word. Once he was dressed in the armour, Zelda held up the image of the tapestry to compare, and nearly dropped the Sheikah Slate.

"What is it?" Link asked, noticing her alarm.

"The...the ancient hero...is this," she could barely speak. "Link, this was his armour!"

Link rushed forward, prising the Sheikah Slate around to see what she was looking at. Zelda pointed to the depiction of the ancient hero; a figure wearing blue, with a mane of red hair and the faint outline of tusks beside his face, just like the ones on the barbarian helm.

"It isn't possible," he murmured. Zelda lowered the slate and took in the sight of Link before her. He was the embodiment of proof, a living incarnation of heroes past.

"But what if it was?" she said. "What if the ancient Hero was a Lomei warrior? Why else put this armour here, why else make it so hard to find, unless it was his? These labyrinths...maybe they serve as his tomb."

Link looked back to where the monk had been. "With allies to watch over his place of rest." He approached the empty dais, and placed a hand on the blank stone, eyes glistening. "Whoever you were, Tokki, you were not forgotten. I'm sorry there wasn't more for you."

He slumped over and lowered his forehead to the stone. Zelda felt his pain as no other could: the weight of Hyrule's curse, the countless lives sacrificed to protect the Kingdom, to ready its hero, to build even the shakiest of peace before the next disaster.

She rubbed his back, resting her head against his shoulder. "It's okay," she said softly. "When you are ready, we can go."

* * *

 _I was lucky not to be at Hyrule Castle when the Calamity began. Ka'loh, Maag and I were travelling from Kakariko to Central Hyrule to cross south and meet with the Faronites. We had stopped in the Sacred Grounds to pray, but we never got the chance._

 _I felt it before I saw it. I felt a turn in my stomach like the sourness of wine. The shudder it sent through us made all three of us cry out, and when I whipped my horse around towards the castle, it reared and threw me to the ground._

 _Ka'loh and Maag are arguing as if there is time for that. Maag wants to return to Kakariko, Ka'loh demands we continue our journey. I defy them both. I remount my horse and hurry forth to Castle Town. The place is already overrun with monsters and beasts. I am a mage, I can fight._

 _The Lomei's face flickers in my mind. A year has passed since our meeting and yet I carry him with me in my every step. I am not a watcher, I tell myself. I can exert will._

 _My will now tells me to protect as many people as I can. Robes flailing behind me, I fight my way through to the city centre. Where did so many monsters come from? Were they summoned? Did they burrow beneath the ground? I do not think. I only act. Fire between my fingers, I take down as many as I can._

 _The Calamity has come earlier than expected; Koshia was to report to the King of the growing signs in the next week. They were to form an evacuation plan, a method of attack, but we have been caught off guard. Perhaps this is what that beast Ganon was waiting for. Waiting for us not to look, for our eyes to be averted._

 _It has chosen a cruel place to emerge; above Hyrule Castle itself. Where else? How else to usurp a Kingdom than with the King? The Central Square is decorated with flags and banners, and I remember; it is the day of the Goddess. A day of celebration! There was to be a parade, I remember that too. The Hero was to be carted around the city, showing off his 'Sword that Seals the Darkness'. I had heard talk that he was a Faronite, but little word more than that reached me. He had better be, I think, pushing through the throng towards the Castle, the Hero ought to be the fiercest fighter alive._

 _That is when I catch sight of them. A flash of gold, and then of red, and then of blue. A young woman in royal regalia, a red-maned Faronite at her side, clad in a bright blue tunic of the Champions._

 _They are struggling against a horde of bokoblins, and are pressed up against a toppled carriage. My wits nearly leave me, panic and excitement filling me at once. It is the Princess and the Hero. More than that._

 _It is the Lomei._

 _I storm towards them, a flash of bright hot energy in my hands, and I lob it towards their attackers. The bokoblin horde scatters, and I see the Lomei skewer one with a shining blue blade. The Sword that Seals the Darkness. He turns my way and cheers._

" _Mage! It's you! Come, fight with me, we are heading to the Castle!"_

 _When I am in range, he strong-arms me into a hug, and I see that he is still wearing his favoured Lomei armour, only now he has added a blue Hylian tunic underneath. I laugh, incredulous and fearful, because while all around us is chaos and death, this ensemble that the Lomei wears is all-together ridiculous._

 _The Princess pushed in between us, and I recognise the Sheikah Slate in her hands. "We have a problem," she says gravely, and holds it out for us to see. It is a map of Hyrule, with twelve points of light, dotted across the region. Sheikah Towers. Eleven of twelve are a clear, solid blue, but the one in Central Hyrule is dark._

 _My breath leaves me, my joy evaporating with it. The Towers are vital. The Towers secure the Divine Beasts. Even one faltering leaves a gap in the network; a place for Ganon to corrupt. The Princess and the Lomei both look to me, but there is no need._

" _I will go. I can secure it," I tell them. The Princess pushes the Sheikah Slate in my hands._

" _You will need this. The Tower isn't even raised. It's been damaged somehow. Protect it with your life, do you understand me?"_

 _I bow and accept the Sheikah Slate with both hands. "Of course, Your Highness."_

 _As I turn to leave, the Lomei speaks. "I will go with him."_

" _What!? You can't-" The Princess protests. "Ganon is here-"_

" _And if this Sheikah doesn't make it? If he dies? I must protect him and ensure that tower is raised." The Lomei takes the Princess's hands and holds them against his chest. "You know you don't need me, Zel. Go to the Castle, use your power, hold Ganon back." He kisses her right palm. "Then we'll finish this together."_

 _The Princess nods with resolution and peels away from us towards the Castle. I find myself biting my lip until the Lomei gives me a hard thwack on the back with his palm._

" _Ready when you are! Let's get this tower moving!"_

 _We find an abandoned horse at the edge of the town and ride together towards the tower, my hands at the reigns. I kick that poor horse harder than I have any other steed, so hard it screams. I expect the Lomei to be his casual, joyful self, roaring with laughter as we speed across the field, but he is silent. He holds on with his legs alone_ _and_ _takes down any monsters we pass with his bow. From even this, I know immediately why has was chosen. He will never stop fighting, never stop moving forward. He is courage personified._

 _With every minute that passes, as we fight our way from Castle Town onto Hyrule Field, through the villages and fields surrounding Central Tower, the chaos around us grew. When we arrive at the tower, I see why it has been damaged. A racket of bokoblins has commandeered the tower platform, and a rogue Guardian is blindly firing towards it. An aura of oozing, purple corruption surrounded the automaton, and I see it that it is compromised. Goddess be praised that only one is possessed. The thought crosses my mind of the damage an entire army of rogue automatons could do, but I discard it immediately. It is too unfathomable, even now._

" _You take the bokoblins!" the Lomei shouts to me, leaping from the horse. "I'll deal with the Guardian."_

" _How!?" I shout, but he does not answer and is already storming towards the automaton._

 _Still on horseback, I circle around to the bokoblins and begin to focus. I can't do what I plan to do with an erratic mind. The magic of the monks is not about fury or power; it is about inner peace. Orienting my horse towards the bokoblins, I let it take the lead and close my eyes. I hear the shouts and jeers of the bokoblins as we draw closer, I feel the tremors in the air as their arrows fly past me. None of it affects me. I am blank to any externality._

 _We are close enough now. I open my eyes, pull_ hard _on the reigns of my horse, and leap from its back. Time slows, just enough, effortlessly moving around me like a river despite the strain I am under to perform this feat._

 _One, two, three, four. Four bokoblins. I count them as I move into position. Hands thrust forward, my entire being placed into this, I unleash a surge of energy towards them. It knocks them_ _the bokoblins_ _from the tower_ _platform,_ _and they_ _scatter_ _. At this, I let go. Time flows, I arc backwards and land rolling across the soft earth. Pain shoots through me, but I let it go. My next thought is of the Lomei, and I hear his actions before I see them._

 _He and the rogue Guardian are facing off, dancing a wild path across the field. The Lomei wields nothing but a bow, his sword sheathed over his back. Suddenly he skids to a halt and rushes forward, leaping onto the Guardian's shell and whipping a new, shining arrow from his quiver. From_ _the tip,_ _a shard of Sheikah glass unfolds, and_ _the Lomei looses_ _it into the Guardian's eye. The automaton shudders, whirrs and locks, and then unceremoniously explodes across the grass, with the Lomei leaping out of the way just in time._

 _The next I know, he is standing above me, unhurt and triumphant, a hand extended._

" _Come on," he says. "Let's finish this."_

 _We rush onto the tower platform, and I scan the Sheikah Slate as quick as I can. The tower shudders and begins to rise. Hyrule grows small beneath us, the sight of it a waking nightmare. More and more monsters than I thought possible, fires in Castle Town, a darkened sky as far west as Tabantha and as far east as Death Mountain. I cannot speak, and neither can the Lomei. We both stare in horror._

" _Destroy that beast," I say quietly, but with more resolve that I have ever uttered anything._

" _Gladly," the Lomei answers. There is another shudder beneath us, and the tower stops. We have succeeded; the tower is raised, and the Divine Beasts can carry out their duty. When I look back at the Lomei, he is holding out a hand._

" _Thank you, uh…" he says expectantly, and I realise then, he is asking for my name._

 _I take his hand. "Tokki," I tell him. "Tokki of Kakariko Village."_

 _He shakes my hand with vigour. "Link," he returns. "Link of the Lomei."_

 _Link. His name is Link, and mine is Tokki. I don't let go just yet. All around us is colour and light, the world at an apotheosis. I know in my core that I must turn my attention back to it, but all I see is him. I almost reach out. I almost…_

 _But instead, I pull my hand away from his and replace it with the Sheikah Slate. "Go, Link. The Princess needs you. I will commandeer this tower."_

 _Link nods, taking the Sheikah Slate and preparing to teleport back to where he is needed. The world is ending, I think, give yourself an honest moment._

" _I wanted to be with you," I tell him. When, and where, doesn't seem to matter. It was just something I wanted._

 _Link pauses, considers this. "You were," he smiles, toothy and youthful, the way I had known him. I watch it fade as he teleports away and turn back to my duty. From the tower, I see it all. The Divine Beasts fire on Hyrule Castle, to where Ganon has taken refuge, and all but the very central structure of the Castle are completely destroyed. Then, there is a blinding golden light, and then nothing. The sky clears. The monsters are felled._

 _Ganon is sealed and gone before the sun has set, but I know he will leave a lasting impression._

 _Afterwards, I see the pieces as they are picked up and returned to their place. I go to Kakariko, for that is where I belong in this arrangement._

 _The news comes to us in snippets. Ganon was sealed, quickly, and effectively. But he was strong, stronger than ever before. He dealt a terrible blow, and the Hero could not be saved. Koshia recounted to us his final moments: He had been a brave but at times rash fighter, and he had been found too late to train properly. When Ganon had made a last-ditch effort to overwhelm the Princess, coalescing into a hideous, physical form, the Hero sacrificed himself to weaken Ganon enough for the Princess to seal him away. They found her in the Throne Room, weeping over him, and by then he was already gone. The Shrine of Resurrection has always been a misnomer, Koshia tells us; it can save those gravely ill, but it can not undo death._

 _The mood in the room when this news is passed onto to us is nothing short of absolute grief. I am not out of place for asking Ka'loh if I may be excused. I stumble out of the house, out through the village and into the graveyard at the edge of my home, and collapse onto the dirt._

 _He died. The Lomei, full of life, the unbreakable hero, stolen from us. All his brashness, all his determination, gone. Why am I the one to remain? The empty cup, the blank face, the monk with nothing to give. Already the whispers have begun, I have heard those too. The fear for the Sheikah Technology. It destroyed Hyrule Castle. It nearly destroyed Hyrule itself. There are those who want the towers destroyed, the Divine Beasts buried. There are those who want the Sheikah gone from Hyrule._

 _I feel the light in the world snuffed from within. I can taste the decay in the air already, beginning with_ _Link's_ _fall._

 _The decision I make is made with clarity. The next hero will not fall like mine. The monks cannot falter now, will not falter, even if the Sheikah must._

 _I return to the house of elders determined, more than I ever have been. Koshia stands at the centre of the room, held in place by his frustration and the grief of those around him. I am carried across the room by a force I don't understand, past the grieving monks at my feet, and I grab Koshia by the shoulders. He startles, but I hold firm. I tell him all that has come to my mind._

 _I tell him that every Shrine must be filled, that the Sheikah technology must be preserved for the next Calamity. I tell him that the Hero has not died to save us, only to buy us time. I tell him that no matter what the world thinks of us, we must find a way to continue. And I tell him that I am ready to begin my training in earnest, and to someday soon choose my Shrine._

" _Are you sure you are ready, Tokki?" Koshia asks me gently. "You are still so young."_

" _As was the Hero. And I would face my duty as he did."_

 _Koshia folds his hands into his sleeves and says nothing. In his silence, he relents._

 _Over the coming months, it is decided that the labyrinths will become Link's monument, his armour stored there for the future Hero to find. Shrines are built within them, Guardians stored beneath them and within their walls to protect them. They are even named 'Lomei', for the tribe of his birth._

 _When_ _it comes time to choose the_ _Shrine that I will watch over, the choice is simple. North Lomei Labyrinth, under the shadow of Mount Drena, where the Hero and I met._

 _The decision edifies me. It solidifies me into a whole. I am no longer faltering, no longer unsure. I do not want, I do not need. I take the name Qaza Tokki and enter my Shrine, to watch over Link's memory and welcome his successor._

 _When at last I descend into the Shrine of North Lomei Labyrinth, to take my place in a small part of history, I think: May the goddess smile upon us all. For what little time we are given._

* * *

When Link and Zelda placed the Sheikah chest down in front of Garini, the poor man was speechless for what felt like an entire minute.

"Y-you're giving _this_ to _me_?" he finally whimpered, pawing at the ancient metal for the latch.

In Garini's defence, they had not bothered to write. They had barely spent a night in a stable let alone a town during their entire journey south. Too eager was Zelda to share with Garini their discovery, and too eager was Link to get away from the frozen wastes of Hebra. They had arrived in Lurelin unannounced and sought Garini out straight away.

Link knelt down by the Sheikah chest, scanned the Sheikah slate, and watched as it popped quietly open.

"We're not actually giving you the chest," he said.

"Crown property, sorry," Zelda added.

Link nudged the chest towards Garini. "But what's inside is yours. It wouldn't be right for us to keep it."

As Garini took in the chest's contents, his expression turned from shock to pensiveness to wonder.

"This is the armour you spoke of, oh and the helm too!" He lifted the helm from the chest, but then abruptly put it back. "You found it, it is your discovery."

Link shook his head. "It belonged to _your_ ancestor. We have evidence that he was a great warrior, one of the greatest. The _Hero of Hyrule_."

Garini retrieved the helm again and held it up, as if gazing into the face it once framed. "The Hero was from my people…" he whispered. "Genuine armour from their time will tell us so much about how they lived! Someone compile it all, your evidence, to preserve what we know."

His face hardened, determination settling into his features. Zelda smiled; the helm had had the desired effect. She nodded for him to continue.

" _I_ should," Garini corrected. He looked up at Link and Zelda. "That's why you gave this to me."

"As it happens, we have an opening at the Hyrulean Academy," Zelda said innocently, casually pulling out the Sheikah Slate. "We can arrange for your family to come along as well if you like."

"I would like that _very_ much, Your Majesty, thank you." Garini scrambled to his feet, and with the helm tucked under one arm, he thrust out a hand. Zelda saw in the Lurelinite's face then the indomitable spirit of the Hyruleans. Duty would never preclude him, and if anything, it emboldened him. No matter the history or tragedies of the past, there was always a path forward.

She took his hand. "Welcome to the Academy, Garini."


	5. A Traveller's Guide to Hyrule Reborn

_**Entry #207, Traveller's Sword**_

 _A very common sword often kept by travellers to fend off small beasts. It's fairly durable, but a bit unreliable against monsters._

* * *

Over and under, tucking it in as neatly as she can, adding in the wool for waterproofing, another layer, then another to make three. This way it will be safe. It has to be safe. It is her life's work.

Mina pauses, stops wrapping. She looks up at the familiar man standing by the desk of the Hateno FLIGHT Service office, counting out a sum of rupees one by one - her brother, Mils. Twin brother, actually, though no one would know it on sight. He struggles with the gems while an increasingly impatient looking Rito officer looks on. Mina fights the urge to push her brother away from the desk and finish the job herself, but knows not to.

The parcel is not just her life's work, but _theirs_.

It is their book. Their guide. The one they have been trying to write their entire lives; from the time before, and then during the Civil War, and the Hyrulean Restoration, and everything in between. The guide is the culmination of every step they have taken, wrapped up in thin paper pages, undyed leather, wool and cotton, and secured with twine.

Mina struggles to hand the package over when her brother - with the assistance of the Rito - finally counts out the right amount of rupees. It is twenty-five for regular service into Central Hyrule, but fifteen per cent on top of that for express.

"Where exactly in Central Hyrule?" the Rito asks. He's already weighing the package. It weighs so little, less than a pound.

"The Hyrulean Academy, the address is on the parcel," Mils answers, and the Rito looks up at him, over the top of this thin-rimmed glasses.

"Really?" he coos. "Important business then?"

Mina and Mils share a look. They know they don't look like scholars - they look more like strays, dressed in patched-up clothes from every corner of the world and carrying just everything they own in two oversized packs that rattle with each step. That's what the Rito is really asking; what business do you two have with the Academy?

The guide would change that. The Professor had promised them; if the guide became the success he believed it could be, then Mina and Mils would have their own place at the Academy, as _real_ researchers. No more scavenging for forgotten goods, no more on-selling them to travelling merchants and haggling for enough coin just to buy a bed for the night. They could travel on their own terms - see where the world was flourishing, not where it lay in ruins.

Mina turns back to the Rito and pushes the rupees across the counter, listening to the way they hiss against the wood. "Your only business is seeing that this parcel arrives safely," she says calmly.

The Rito places the parcel on the pile with the others to be sorted and withdraws, muttering, "Well, very good day to you then."

Mils is grinning beside her. "Be nice," he whispers. Mina shrugs, mouths, _Why?_

The world was never very kind to travellers. At least, not in Mina and Mils' lifetime. Once, many years ago, perhaps. But then the world ended, and it became easier to hide from it than face it as it was. Travellers were seen as a risk.

The guide could change that. Mina knows it, and she knows the Professor knows it too. Already she is anxious to hear his reply.

As they walk back to the inn in Hateno, Mils cannot stop grinning. "Can you believe it?" he asks, taking her arm. "It's done. We actually finished it!"

Mina smiles, giving her brother a gentle shove. His optimism has broken her own downtrodden thoughts. With a laugh, she tells him, "It's only the first draft, Mils. We have plenty of work to do yet."

* * *

[ _A neatly written letter, delivered to the Hyrulean Academy's Department of History]_

Dearest G,

Thank you again for introducing me to the Copperblades. When you described the pair, I expected Mina and Mils to be youngsters, barely older than my own children, and was shocked to find that they are nearing middle age. They both spoke of growing up in the time before, and how empty the world seemed then. Mina even said she credited her and her brother's careers to us. 'For giving us a new world to explore', she said.

To see people flourish in this way; it reminds me of why we do the work that we do.

My curiosity did get the better of me, and I had no choice but to ask where their last name had come from. I know it is the fashion now, to style a moniker for oneself. But normally it would be Honeymaker or Hatenoan, something simple and reflective, and so I had to ask.

Mina explained to me that she and her brother were fighters, but as Mils then said, "Just not very good ones." Copper isn't the strongest of metals, but a blade of it will get the job done as well as any other. Mina also explained that copper is malleable, the most abundant of the metals. It is found nearly everywhere and sees all aspects of daily life. It was, as she told me, the perfect handle for a pair of travellers.

Mina tells me she and her brother are writing something of a guide and would be on the road again in the morning to make addendums to their first manuscript. I am interested to read it if you have it on hand. I can even offer to annotate it. I do not wish any credit, only for my suggestions to be considered. Queens are not usually adventurers. I'm not sure how seriously my advice would be taken.

Hylia's blessings,

Zelda

* * *

DRAFT COPY - **A TRAVELER'S GUIDE TO HYRULE REBORN**

BY M & M COPPERBLADE

ED. PROF G., HYRULEAN ACADEMY. 120AC.

[ _A note tucked into the back cover, intended for the book's editor]_

G,

Here's the updated manuscript. Addressed your main concerns. Sorry it took us a while. We only got back into Hateno a fortnight past to write the last part out. Mils wanted to try Eventide again. You can guess the rest.

We will be in Castle Town in three weeks. Regards to the Queen.

Mina.

 _[The response, written on the bottom of the original note]_

Mina and Mils,

I think this is nearly ready. Please refrain from sailing off to cursed islands in future. Send for me when you arrive at the Academy. I have a new assignment for you once this is done.

Strict confidentiality. I can't say much more, however to hold your interest I will say this: Sheikah technology.

And that's Prof. G to you.

 _[The following are select excerpts from 'A Traveller's Guide to Hyrule Reborn', with notes written by Mina Copperblade, Professor G, and Queen Zelda. Some sections are complete, with others still awaiting editing.]_

 **Introduction**

There is not a Hyrulean alive who can deny the beauty of our great kingdom, and if there is, we have yet to meet them. Even those of us who never study Hyrule's history, who know nothing of the Calamities, or the Royal Family, or Hyrule's extensive roster of myths; we all know something of our legend. In fact, we can prove it. Finish this sentence for us:

 _Three golden goddesses…_

Can you already hear the rest? Say it with us.

 _...descended upon the chaos that was Hyrule._

Why do we hold so steadfast onto these words? Because we know that Hyrule was forged, by the gods, for us. From the raging sands of Gerudo to the searing fires of Eldin; from the sparkling majesty of Lanayru to the brutal crystalline mountains of Hebra; from the culture-rich Necluda to the barren peacefulness of Akkala - we have it all here in Hyrule. Its legend is at our feet. What the gods left behind is what we live every day.

And so we are all travellers. Even those of us who have never left home, never made a fire, never haggled with a stable keep for a cheaper bed for the night! So full is Hyrule that even staying in the same place can bring the fulfilment and wonder of travelling across every inch!

The latter, however, is just what we, Mina and Mils Copperblade, have set out to do in our lives.

As all Hyruleans are unfortunately aware, Hyrule is rich for the very same reasons that it is in some ways poor. We will never escape our history, and our history is a violent one. At the time of publishing, it is now 120 years since the Great Calamity and only 17 since the Civil War. Our scars are numerous and uncountable and are seen everywhere across the land. But we survive and are survived by each other. Hyrule - and all the hope within it - will never perish so long as its people wish to see it reborn, again and again, from the horrors that befall it.

The writing of this tome has taken my brother and me our entire lives, most of which we have been lucky to live in peace, and half of which we have lived under the reign of our new Queen. So we consider Hyrule reborn once again, and its bounties only growing. Contained within is our guide for just some of the many must-see locations within Hyrule.

It is now up to you, reader, to see them with your own eyes.

Safe travels,

Mina and Mils Copperblade

 _[An exchange in the footnotes]_

 _M: How's this, still too hammed up? Mils says it makes him cry every time he reads it, but I tried to tone it down._

 _G: You call THIS toned down? Nevermind. It's fine. I think we're allowed to be a bit dramatic, given the topic._

 **The Divine Beasts of Hyrule**

Where else to begin but the Divine Beasts of Hyrule? Of course, we _all_ know of the Divine Beasts. Vah Ruta, the peaceful elephant, Vah Naboris, the sagely camel, Vah Medoh, the proud eagle, and Vah Rudania, the keen salamander; each was built by Hyruleans like us many thousands of years ago. That they remain standing and with such glory is a testament to what Hyrule can achieve. Their shadows reach across all four corners of the Kingdom, but the light they bring is felt by all.

Perhaps what only the savvy travellers know, however, is the best _time_ to see the Divine Beasts.

One can find Vah Ruta within Zora's Domain, generally at the Eastern Reservoir or atop Ruta's Plateau. We recommend visiting on Champion Day, in late Autumn, for the grand celebration the Zora hold there (and if one wants a break from the Queen's own elaborate celebrations of her birthday in the capital, which we personally have found exhausting!).

[ _Zelda's notes: I half want a break from these myself, but as a small request I'd ask that this parenthetical takes a more light-hearted tone]._

Here, Vah Ruta becomes the only Divine Beast to be open to the public, and for just one day. Visit Nehri's Topaz Tours in Zora's Domain for a guided tour through the structure; Ruta's complexity and ancient mechanisms may prove difficult for inexperienced travellers.

Vah Medoh, on the other hand, has no permanent home; all one needs to do to see him is _look up_. As the flagship of the Rito FLIGHT service, Vah Medoh is the most active of the Beasts and can be seen all over the Kingdom, as he is used to ferry goods throughout Hyrule. In the Winter, however, when trade slows and the FLIGHT service winds down for the season, Medoh's pilot Scoutmaster Teba will give eager travellers an aerial tour, should they make their way to Rito Village itself. Travellers may need to ask twice, however, and be careful not to touch anything during the ride, as our revered Scoutmaster Teba is a severe man on the best of days- _[Prof G: Mina, yourself and Mils tried to duel mid-flight and fell off. Teba nearly crashed Medoh trying to save you.]_

… as our revered Scoutmaster Teba is very protective of his Beast. _[Mina: I have no memory of this incident]_

 _[Zelda's notes: So_ that's _what happened.]_

Vah Naboris is an entirely different story. More fond of the ravaging winds and dust storms of Gerudo than of tamer company, Naboris is rarely seen and even more rarely approached. Some say her secretiveness, and the secretiveness of her pilot, Chief Riju, tells of changes within the desert, but little has made it any farther north than the desert boundaries. Once a year, however, when the dust season in Gerudo has ended, Naboris can be seen atop her plateau, standing proudly at the edge of the desert — a reminder, that despite all those who would misunderstand or mischaracterise them, the Gerudo stand strong.

[An exchange in the margins]

 _Mina: Any word on what's happening there yet?_

 _Prof G: Something big and something above your station._

And who could forget Vah Rudania, or simply Rudy, as the Gorons have come to know him. Happily perched on Death Mountain, Rudania has served the Gorons as a shield against falling rocks and debris for nearly two decades now and has not faltered once. This unprecedented safety and stability in the Eldin region has caused tourism to go through the roof, and an entirely new city to sprout! If one is looking to escape the winter heat, or visit a milder Eldin, then look no further than Rock Base City the new but flourishing Goron settlement on the edge of Eldin.

[In the footnotes]

 _Mina: Can you check if that is_ definitely _the name? Rock Base City is the best they could come up with?_

 _Prof G: Disappointingly, yes._

 **Magestone Atop The Great Plateau**

 _[Most of the following section is crossed in hard, thick strokes, with stern notes written from Prof G, and later revisions written beneath]_

Resting loftily within 'the very birthplace of Hyrule', its walled sides shrouded in mist and cloud, Magestone atop the Great Plateau is Hyrule's premier institution for the study of magical arts. Formed after the infamous mage insurrection, Magestone is a meeting place for all magically inclined in the kingdom. And this number continues to grow year on year, with those born with and without magic flock to Magestone to study. However, visiting the walled township is only allowed for non-students on three occasions during the year, so plan accordingly; Champion Day, Winter's Welcome, and the Day of Healing. Magestone itself remains a closed order for now, by decree of its Director, Aurelia, and admittance outside of these days is not generally open to the public. Some have called this a controversial move, appointing a Yiga to the role— _[Crossed out from here. Note from_ _Prof.G reads: No politics]_

Despite whisperings of her heritage and former associations with insurgents that will go unmentioned, Aurelia- [ _Crossed out again. Note from Prof. G reads:_ _ **No politics.**_ _]_

We highly recommend you visit this fine institution.

 **The Mysteries of Eventide**

 _[This section is crossed out entirely, with a note from Prof. G that reads:_

' _I said no. I don't care that the Hero of Hyrule once 'braved its misty shores' or that Eventide Island is 'Hyrule's final secret' or even that getting there is as simple as 'slapping together some logs and paddling across the sparkling Faron Bay'. Eventide is off limits, and if my veto isn't strong enough, Queen Zelda herself specifically requested this section removed. The only people above her are the gods themselves, and I challenge you to get any input from them!']_

 **The Riverhouses of the Zora Riva**

All the way from Zora's Domain down to the wetlands of Lanayru, one will find a wholly Hylian invention: the riverhouse. These dwellings are built directly into the riverbed itself, so close that one can take a boat right up to the doors. And this is, in fact, the very purpose of the riverhouses; to remove the need for fussy horses or roads between houses that need maintenance and regular trampling to keep them in use. Instead of walking or riding between homes, the people of the riverhouses use everything from paddle boats to steamships as transport. Given that most of the population are former Lurelinites, who have roots in living close to the water, their choice to live on the river is a natural one.

The River Longhouses of the Zora River were built some ten years after the Hyrulean Restoration when Hylians began to move into the area known for its stable weather and bountiful food. The establishment of this community was not without its obstacles and was vehemently opposed by the Zora themselves. However, under the reign of their new King Sidon, who was determined to bring Zora's Domain back into the fold of wider Hyrule, eventually, a treaty between the new riverfolk and the Zora was signed in 114AC. Specific sites sacred to the Zora would remain untouched, and the riverfolk and Zora would pay a portion of their profits from what they made on the river back into a pool that would then be used to improve the Zora River for both. These days, along with the humbler paddle-boats, larger Zora-owned ferries frequently make their way along the river to trade.

We recommend visiting the region in Spring or Autumn when the river swells from the regular rain. Perfect for the time-poor traveller, one can hire a small river boat for a modest fee and paddle the entire river's length in less than a day. On the north end of the river is a floating market, where everything and anything that Zora's Domain and the River Houses can offer - fish, food, souvenirs, music and tales - can be found in dedicated rafts. You won't even need to leave your own boat!

 **Red Salamander Music Tent**

It is a little-known fact about Gorons that they need only sleep about two or three hours a day, and will sometimes elect to do so at noon - for this is when the sun is highest and warmest. And as most people know, a warm Goron is a happy Goron.

Why do we bring this up? Because anyone who has travelled within even two miles of Rock Base City has seen (or rather heard!) evidence of this fact first hand.

The Red Salamander Music Tent is the unlikely all-hours entertainment hotspot that literally never shuts. In the fifteen years that it has been open, Red Salamander has only closed twice - when a particularly enthusiastic fiddler managed to set his bow on fire, panicked and set some curtains alight, and when the Goron City Elder passed away, and all the resident musicians went into Goron City to pay their respects.

Normally we would give a particular time of year as best to visit, but Red Salamander has such variety that we would recommend going any time! Despite its humble beginnings as a hang out for listless Goron youth with a creative streak, Red Salamander has grown in reputation as Hyrule's premier music venue. Any and all musicians with any semblance of talent _must_ be seen there, and absolutely every kind of music in Hyrule can be heard there.

Red Salamander has a strict egalitarian policy; no musician has ever _booked_ to play there. They allow anyone who wants to simply show up and play. The tent doesn't even have an owner! Savvy business Gorons have set up shop inside, selling hot drinks and food on the outer edge of the tent, while the centre of the tent is the stage, and everything in between is space to dance! We know of rumours that the Court Bard Kass himself can be heard there, along with his former apprentice Yunobo, a renowned bassist and storyteller, though exactly _when_ they will be seen is anyone's guess.

 **Flying Letter and Important Goods Holistic Transport Service, or FLIGHT**

It is no secret that the Rito are unmatched in their aerial abilities, and in both their speed and reach across the Kingdom. It is no surprise then that, after the Hyrulean Restoration, the modest network of independent Rito messengers and couriers soon formed into a collective, informally known at the time as FLAPS (Flying Letter and Parcel Service). The Scoutmaster of Hyrule, Teba, determined then to give the collective some structure, brought them into Hyrule Castle for deliberation of how they would see the service run and what kind of relationship could be formed with the Crown.

The collective was officially reformed into the Rito FLIGHT Service, or Flying Letter and Important Goods Holistic Transport Service in 110AC, though some consider this name cumbersome and informally continue to use the original acronym. Teba himself was the service's first director, but stepped down only three years later and was succeeded by his young son, Tulin.

The central hub of the FLIGHT Service is located at Central Tower, in Central Hyrule. While no doubt you will pass this monument during your travels, we encourage you to take a day to stop by and see this elaborate operation. No less than two hundred Rito are employed at any one time by the Service, sorting, categorising and distributing mail across the Kingdom. The soaring platforms built into the tower at the hub itself are so dense that it is easy to become lost within minutes! While no _official_ tours are offered, from our personal experience, the hub is so busy that one will not likely be noticed if they take a quick peek inside.

 _[The rest is clearly hand-written by Prof. G. but is intended as addendum]_

We, the authors and publishers of this tome, as well as representatives of the Hyrulean Royal Academy, take no responsibility should you be caught trespassing on any Crown or Private property following the advice printed in this book.

 **The Gerudo Lights**

As we have already mentioned in this tome, Vah Naboris of Gerudo Desert is an elusive creature and is not often sighted. However, for a few weeks of the year, when the Gerudo nights are cold and dark, Naboris will approach Gerudo Town and roost by its walls. The people of Gerudo can also be seen hanging strings of lights from their homes and over their doors and across the town plaza. And on the coldest night of the year, Gerudo Town lights up.

Using the electrical power that Vah Naboris generates, the lights are powered in a vast array that spans the entire town. What is most fascinating about the operation is that it is a _single_ string of lights and if there is even one break in the line, all of the lights go dark. How the Gerudo coordinate such a show is a great secret and one they keep close within their walls.

 _[The following section is prefixed with the note, 'Can we include?' and the response 'Can't see why not - speculation is harmless']_

There is speculation we have heard and mentioned elsewhere in this tome that some secret project is being undertaken by the Gerudo, and that Vah Naboris and the Gerudo Lights are at the centre of it. What isn't a secret is that many of us in Hyrule are a little envious of Vah Naboris' power - electrical energy has not been secured in any other part of the Kingdom to date, not even by the Royal Academy. Should the Gerudo manage to harness or even generate the electrical energy Vah Naboris produces independent of the Beast herself, it would be nothing short of revolutionary. We encourage our readers to keep a close eye on this region in future.

 _[Zelda's notes: Strict confidentiality G, but this seems more than speculation. Mina knows more about this than she is letting on, I am certain.]_

Entering Gerudo Town is _somewhat_ easier than it was in the past. The Gerudo Lights marks the _only_ time of year that men are allowed into the city, and this is only permitted to occur if they have a female chaperone personally approved by their Chief. We, being brother and sister, were granted pass. However we recommend that non-female readers attend the festival accompanied. Being caught without a female chaperone is a one-way ticket _out_ of Gerudo, or if one isn't willing to comply, _in_ to their holding cells until one changes their mind.

 **Hyrule Castle**

Where else to finish but Hyrule Castle itself?

Standing as a stark reminder of the prosperous Pre-Calamity era, the older amongst us knew of Hyrule Castle as little more than a shadowed omen. It brought with it only a twisted sense of nostalgia that the Hyrule we knew was once much grander and more prosperous, and that the terrible tragedy which had brought us so low might yet be lurking to happen all over again.

In the time before, few of the brave could even approach it. The landscape was barren and diseased and patrolled by the malicious beast that destroyed Hyrule during the Calamity. We, the authors, only ventured there once on a whim, to see the ruins of Hyrule Castle up close. We were caught out in a midsummer storm and attacked by bokoblins just one mile from ruined Castle Town and had no choice but to flee.

As a personal aside, we were helped to safety that night by a young Hylian who we later learned was named Link. He wasn't what the world knows him as today. He was dressed in simple clothes, wielding little more than a traveller's sword and the now famous Sheikah Slate. He helped us find shelter, helped us set a fire, ate his supper in silence and then went on his way.

We all know the rest.

Today, Hyrule Castle has been returned to its former glory - or at least an imagined recreation. The years following the Hyrulean Restoration saw the old towers repaired, the crumbled west wing completely rebuilt, flags woven, trees and flowers planted, walls papered and halls filled until the Castle was complete.

Twice a year, during Winter's Break and on the Queen's birthday, Hyrule Castle is very briefly open to the public. Guided tours are given, and a banquet is held in the throne room for all to attend. Walking through the Castle itself, one can easily marvel at its splendour. It is a terrifying, golden, ambitious building that is set out like more of a maze than a home, and there is a richness to it - the marble floors, the velvet accents, the high ceilings - that is not seen elsewhere in Hyrule.

But beyond that, one can see where the new and old intersect. Seams in the walls of the west wing, where the stone that was blasted to pieces was replaced with cuts from new quarries in Gerudo. Or the change in the colour of tiles on the roof and on the floors, where old patterns from the time before could not be perfectly replicated. Or the peeling portraits salvaged from the time before, placed on newly wallpapered walls. Or the way some rooms are still colonised by dust and spiderwebs, as though life has yet to fully touch them.

Yet there is no need, we don't think, to completely recreate the old, as much as we wish to search for it. Hyrule Castle is the mirror of its Kingdom. Accounts from before the Calamity tell of grandness that outstrips even what it has become now, matching the era of prosperity from which it was born. Then, during the Calamity, it was sullied and shrunken, yet still, it remained. And now, post-Restoration, it is scared and imperfect but stands reborn.

Even if you cannot travel far, or if you only have one place in this Kingdom to visit, we recommend Hyrule Castle.

 _[A final note annotation from Zelda, written in neat handwriting - a message for Prof. G.]_

 _If it's alright with you, I'll like to send a copy to Link. He is stationed in Akkala now, but I can have it returned to you within a fortnight._

 _Thank you for letting me read this, G. Send my regards to Mina, and her brother too._

* * *

 _[A hastily written letter, sent to the Hyrulean Academy's Department of History]_

I read the manuscript. Looks great. Zelda tells me it'll go to print soon.

Were the Copperblades interested in the project we discussed? Grante and I have some eager apprentices who can help, but it'll be a big task.

Best regards,

Link

 _[The note written in response]_

Your Majesty,

They were indeed. I will send Mina and Mils to you as soon as they arrive.

Regards,

Garini

* * *

Over and under, pulling the rope through the gaps between the logs of palm. It's Faron wood, light and hollow, cuts clean. Perfect for rafts. Reminds him of home, that little village by the river, whereas a child he would play in the waters. Mils ties the last knot, and the makeshift vessel is ready to go; he looks up and sees his sister sitting on a nearby sand-dune, finishing off a letter. She's resting her paper on a copy of _The Traveller's Guide_ \- Mils still chuckles when he sees his name on that book. His sister was the wordsmith, not him. _His_ speciality was an uncanny sense of direction; a feeling of place, no matter where he and his sister travelled. Mils led while Mina wrote.

"Tell the old man it was my idea again. He'll be less mad that we came back here," he calls to her. Mina looks up and rolls her eyes, stuffs the paper and ink and pen into her pack and joins him by the shore.

"Garini will be mad either way. He _knows_ how dangerous Eventide is. He grew up here."

"Well, he'll never let us add it into the Guide."

Mina shakes her head and steps onto the raft. "This isn't for the Guide."

Mils supposes she is right. The Guide is done now, published, and by all accounts a success. It sold out its first run for New Castle Town in a fortnight. The Queen herself is writing a foreword for the second edition! But their work isn't done yet. It won't be for some time.

With a heave, Mils pushes the raft out into the waters, towards the island that stands shrouded in mist at the edge of the bay. He's heard the native Faronites refer to it as _The Eye of Faron_ \- a single, beady pupil in the middle of the water. Mils knows it as Eventide Island. He hands Mina one of two oars borrowed from Lurelin Town, and they begin to row, and the island grows.

If the island is an eye, Mils wonders what it sees. He wonders what _they_ will see. In the three times that Mils and Mina have come here, they have not lasted more than a few hours, always waking on the shore with no memory of what they experienced within. If they didn't come back here to add Eventide Island to their guide, then it would be for only one other reason.

"You really think Eventide is related to the _project_?" Mils asks, almost feeling the need to whisper. "What if we can't get in again?"

Mina stops rowing. She reaches into her pack and pulls out a small notebook, flipping to a central page. She looks at the island and back to the page, and exhales, calmed by what she sees.

"This time it's different," she says in a determined voice. "Before, we were just travellers. Now, we're looking for something. They will know. They will let us in."

Mils wants to ask _who_ , but looking at the notebook, he is reminded. Drawn on the page in clean lines is the symbol they have been sent to find, wherever they can; an open eye with a steady gaze, and a single teardrop falling beneath.

When they land, their makeshift raft bumping softly against the sand, Mils senses his sister is right.

Something has changed here, something about the way the light bends around the narrow shore.

The way forward is open. The island is expecting them.


	6. Rise and Fall of the Yiga, Ch 1

_**Entry #283: Windcleaver  
**_ _This sword is favored by high-ranking members of the Yiga. When wielded by a proficient fighter, its unique shape cleaves the very wind and creates a vacuum._

* * *

Time is the great divider. It is the only bridge that the travellers have not crossed.

The past, and the present: like separate doors to open, separate pathways to travel. The only way to move between them is to tell.

But even then, is your past the same as the story you tell of it? If I looked back at your life as you left it, would I see what you saw? Is any of it real? Is any of it true?

We share so much. We were born to the same people, have stood in the same places. We have been given the same purpose. But you are not here, and in a way, neither am I.

Even so, I must tell my story back to you, and hope that wherever you are and in whatever voice I have left - you will hear me.

* * *

 _103 AC (After Calamity)._

 _Winter. Eighteen months after the Hyrulean Restoration._

* * *

 **Rise**

Four-hundred and thirty-three steps. There are four hundred and thirty-three steps within the inner stairwell of Akkala Citadel. It is a narrow, enclosed path of stairs at the centre of the Citadel that winds in an almost unbroken line from the belly of the fortress, up and out into the light where the spire of Akkala Tower rises. Aurelia counts the steps as she climbs. In the few weeks that she has been living here, she has made the climb many times.

The climb began in the Citadel's prison cells at the very bottom of the fortress. They are a hellish place, with rampant damp, mould, and the faint, ever-present smell of rot. The cells are so deep within the Citadel that in moments of silence, one can almost hear the rumbling of the earth beneath.

Shamefully, the cells are a familiar place, one Aurelia visits every morning. The Hylians who run the Citadel keep two of her people in chains and darkness. She is the only one who brings the prisoners food and water, though they spit on her for doing so. _Traitor. Murderer. One-eyed bitch._

So many names they call her, and yet they take what she carries down for them all the same.

Not that it matters. The names aren't wrong, just cruel. The anger is misplaced. Soon, before the Winter, she would free them, and then they would forgive her.

Forty-stairs to the next level. Not much here. Storage, closets, rooms full with dust that haven't been fully explored and cleaned out. Some rooms are collapsed. The level hasn't been declared safe, and so is abandoned. The air here is damp and stale, moisture in the mountain soil seeping through the ancient stones. If this level remains empty for much longer, it may just crumble.

Emptiness does that, Aurelia has learned. She has heard that Akkala Citadel was built nearly eight thousand years ago. How was that possible? How could something stand for so long only to decay in a single century? Time made little sense to her in this way.

One hundred steps to the next level. Sleeping cells, occupied. Aurelia's is here, as are those belonging to the rest of her people. Winter would be soon, and so the Hylians of the Citadel allowed them to shelter within its walls, though not willingly. The Queen had ordered it, and her rule was never questioned. Such was her legend; the young Hylian Princess reborn who defeated not only Ganon but the Yiga insurgency, bending them to her will and forcing an armistice that rid Hyrule of their threat for the rest of time. What a story; and a shame that it wasn't true.

The sleeping cells here are small. The _smallest_ cells that could be found, with some blithe justification that, well, your people are used to sleeping Aurelia, curiously, had been given quite a large cell, one with its own fireplace. That must have been the Queen's doing, or perhaps it was Link. Or even the Akkalan. She hopes it isn't him.

It doesn't matter. Her people won't be here long. Just for the winter, and then they can strike out on their own.

Thirty-five to the next level; the kitchens, dinings halls and vast pantries. One of Aurelia's people passes her on the way up as he heads down into the sleeping cells. Cejin, or CJ as he prefers. He smells of cooking oil and smoke, his long black hair tied high to keep it out of the way. He carries a large tray with more food than one man could eat; wild mushrooms, muesli made of Hylian wheat, berries and chestnuts, a stack of bacon and a huge bowl of scrambled eggs. He is bringing breakfast down for the rest of their people; they aren't yet welcome in the dining halls.

"How are our little pets today?" he asks, teasingly. "Fed and watered?"

"They're fine, thank you," Aurelia sighs. "Maybe if you didn't call them that, I might get somewhere with Hudson on having them released." She steals a slice of bacon from the tray as CJ rolls his eyes.

"It'll never happen, Chief. Not while they still wear the masks."

Aurelia recoils. _Chief_. "Don't call me that."

"What?"

"I'm not your _Chief_ ," she whispers, as though anyone could hear them in the narrow stairway. "Yiga don't have _Chiefs_. "

CJ stares at her for some time, then bows his head. "Of course..." he murmurs. "How could I forget?"

His apology surprises her. Aurelia had expected defiance, as she has received from so many of the others. They all want to forget. They don't want to admit that their people were infected from within and that the only _Chief_ they ever had sought to wipe them out entirely. It is easier to pretend he was always there. That he was inevitable.

"Forgive me, Master Aurelia," CJ says earnestly. _Master_. Aurelia laughs at the new moniker.

"I don't much like the sound of that either," she says, and Cejin goes wide-eyed. Cejin is wide-eyed. Aurelia realises she has been unfair. Whatever he calls her, he is simply being polite. She places a hand on his arm and urges him down the stairs. "Go, before the food is cold. I'm sure the others will be grateful for your efforts."

He relaxes. "Thanks," he smiles and then bows his head once more before hurrying away.

Aurelia looks back as he descends. His dark hair is the last thing of him that she sees, and soon he has rounded out of sight. Sometimes, she feels jealous of the way many of her people can disappear like that. She does not share their dark hair, despite being born among them.

On the day of her birth,, the midwife told Aurelia's mother that she had spent too much time in the sun. _Golden hair, it marks her against us,_ the woman had said. _She belongs to the dreaded Hylia._ In response, Aurelia's mother gave her a name that meant _golden,_ just to spite the old woman. Still, Aurelia _was_ marked. Both her sisters had deep brown hair, as did many of those born to the Yiga. It was an omen to be so bright among those who live in the valley's shadows.

Seventy steps from the kitchens to the larger sleeping cells, dining halls, command offices, libraries, studies and other private rooms. She has heard the Library of Akkala Citadel for a time rivalled that in Hyrule Castle, and was better preserved too, thanks to being so far underground. She wonders what could be hidden in there. The Hylians barred her people from this level. It was _their_ space. The Yiga had been given what they need, and no more.

Aurelia runs up the rest of the stairs. There is nothing to see on the other levels. More sleeping cells, armouries, smithies, tailors, carpenters, kitchens, dining halls and outposts. Hylian places. _Hyrulean_ places. She is no Hyrulean. She does not belong in Hyrule. Her people turned their back that Kingdom and exiled themselves to the desert until they had no choice but to reach out and beg to be let back in. Aurelia made the plea herself. _I will lay down my blade, and you will ensure my people have a place among you._ And she kept her end of that bargain.

Out from the cold underbelly of Akkala Citadel, Aurelia emerges onto the Eastern Battlements. Two guards are on patrol, though they are not Knights-In-Training. They would be wielding special shields, emblazoned with the royal Hyrulean crest. These two are lowly, unfit to join the new Knight Academy. Aurelia cannot help but smirk. _She_ was offered a place in the Academy, by the hero Link himself. Maybe she didn't take it, and maybe she should have, but the truth of it is she is better than these silly guards, even though they did not know it, and somehow that makes it sweeter.

The guards eye Aurelia warily, and she eyes them back. None say any word, though she hears above the wind their whispers as she leaves.

More stairs on her way to the very top, and as she climbs, the sun rises over the horizon. Hyrule is striking in this light. Every outline is made sharper as the sun's rays cut through the sky. From Akkala, Death Mountain dominates the horizon, the rest of the Kingdom held in a haze by the misty morning air. Aurelia can only just see the castle. She nods towards it, thinking of the Queen.

Aurelia had never seen it like this until a few months ago when she and her people first came here. In Karusa Valley, any sunlight that could reach them would have to peek over the high cliffs. Aurelia remembers looking up between the high walls of that valley and wondering what it would be like to touch the sky. She thought she would never know.

Today, she looks for a splinter of blue light atop the Citadel. Akkala Tower. The Citadel is built around it; some say deliberately, some say by accident. Around its base is a partially-collapsed structure that Aurelia guesses was once a lookout, or a high tower atop the Citadel, destroyed when the Sheikah Tower was raised. The stone here is tinged a faint purple and is somewhat sticky; the legacy of that foul Malice that Aurelia heard once covered this place.

Leaning against an outer wall of the structure is a broad man clad in a red stealth suit. There is a long, slender sword over his back, in a burlap sheath, which Aurelia recognises as a Windcleaver. His black hair is tied high off his face, which is framed by the hood of his suit. He is wearing a red and white mask, painted with an upside down eye, and a teardrop falling impossibly upwards. The Yiga Eye.

"Oh, _shit_ ," Aurelia breathes upon seeing him. " _No, no, no."_

The Yiga man waves her over. "Master Aurelia," he says jovially, having not seen the panic on her face. Aurelia reaches him and drops her voice to a whisper.

"Rin! I told you not to wear that!"

The man points to his mask. "What, this? Wait you were serious about that?"

"Yes! Goddess preserve me, Rin, I hope nobody saw you!" Aurelia passes a surreptitious look at the clearing behind them. Thankfully no one is milling about, nor are there any guards down on the wooden bridge between the Citadel and the mainland.

Rin lifts his mask. Underneath is a surprisingly young face, though it is marked by scars. "Well, by your command, Master Aurelia."

 _Master._ Aurelia shudders. She feels like a parrot, repeating taught phrases as she tells him, "You don't have to call me that."

"It's who you are."

Aurelia looks past Rin to the Windcleaver he has slung over his shoulder. It must be one of the few left in Hyrule. "By rights, it could be _you_ leading us, you rank higher," she says. "I'm not bladed like you are."

Rin laughs. "A blade and a little magic makes me fit to lead Hyrule's last Yiga?"

"It's more than I have."

Rin does not say anything, and Aurelia thinks it best to put the subject to rest. Perhaps it is for the better that Rin does not lead them just yet. He is the definition of a stray animal; a footsoldier posted to the wilds shortly before Ganon's defeat. When he caught wind that his very reason for being was slain, he deserted the clan for nearly a year until he heard of the next big shock. Not only was Ganon dead, but his own people had become embroiled in a civil war that nearly wiped them out, and to survive had formed a tentative alliance with the new Hylian Queen. _The Queen_! With the very royal family that Rin had been told all his life were the cause of his clan's misery. For half a day, Rin thought it was then his sacred duty to kill this new Queen, but decided instead to find where his people had ended up, to look to them for his new direction in life. He was a Yiga through and through, and if his clan had made their peace, then so would he.

That is how he came to Aurelia some months ago, and has since been travelling Hyrule in search of more stray Yiga. But Winter's Welcome is soon, and that search will become futile no matter how brilliantly Yiga red might stand out against the snow. Rin has come to stay with them in the Citadel for the winter, and after that, his search will resume.

If only it had been more of a success, or perhaps less of a failure. Rin was the _only_ bladed Yiga to renounce his dedication to Ganon. The rest did not last long. It was either the cells or the rope.

Wearing the Yiga mask is a quick trick to ending up with either, and Rin _should_ know this. Gesturing for him to follow her to the entrance of the Citadel, Aurelia sees that he his holding his mask in hand, and looking down at it wistfully.

Aurelia places a hand over it to cover the open eye. "Please hide this. I may have pardoned you, but the Hylians have not."

Rin snatches the mask away and tucks it into his belt. He pouts but then nods. "By your command, Master."

They walk in silence down through the levels of the Citadel, until they near the sleeping cells were the Yiga reside. Rin has maintained his sulking silence, and Aurelia feels a knot in her stomach that tightens with every step.l. It hurts, she realises, to chide her people like this. To make them hide. To be so cowardly.

They reach Rin's room, and Aurelia musters her courage to finally face him. "We'll practice later? At dusk?" she asks, breaking the tension.

Rin smiles. "Only if you think you can handle it."

"I can handle it," Aurelia says defiantly.

"This isn't swordplay."

"I know."

Rin looks at her a while, and Aurelia senses something unsaid. With a small sigh, Rin opens the door to his cell. It is tiny, and cramped, but is no worse than the barracks back at Karusa Valley. He breathes deep.

"Ah, what it is to have a home."

* * *

The rest of the morning is spent in study., pouring over material Rin had brought her: ancient symbols and script used by their people that bare no resemblance to modern Hylian script. He'd given her small sheets of red parchment paper, cut into strips, and a pot of white ink. She is to write her name on them in the ancient script, and the names of her family, and her home. The height of her body, the colour of her skin. _Earthly things_ , Rin had told her. _Anything real._

Aurelia considers writing the Akkalan's name but does not.

It is noon when she puts away her work and, weary and hungry, goes in search of her people. They will be enjoying some lunch soon, no doubt cooked by Cejin or perhaps even Hana. Aurelia hopes it is indeed her little sister that has cooked today. It will give them something to talk about.

She finds Hana handing out bowls of lentils and rice to the other Yiga in the common space that the Yiga co-opted for their dining room. It was once a large store, or perhaps a study, but now it is theirs The group that has gathered pause when she enters; they stand, and they bow. _Greetings, Master Aurelia_ , they murmur. They are huddled around a large central table, but there is little space. She looks at their faces, affects a smile. By Hana are Mara and Sanh, and Sanh's husband Ocre, the eldest besides Aurelia. Sanh cradles a little baby in her arms, no older than three months, born on the plains of Akkala in the autumn. The teenagers are all sitting together near the food: Cejin and his cousin Khea, the shy but strong Lee, the wild Ruth, whose laugh was the last to ring out when Aurelia entered, and then Aitee and Pich, twin brothers who Aurelia had met in Karusa Valley when she returned there in the summer. At the front of the table are the youngsters; Djalu and Lileth, both Hylian born Yiga whose parents were recruits, and then the ones Aurelia feared for the most, the little children, two girls and two boys, the youngest only three. She remembers smuggling them away from the _Chief_ 's clutches, her blood in her ears, the scars on her face fresh and pulsating with the fear that he might find them and take them back to that dreaded Castle where he had kept them captive. But they were safe now. She had got them out. The Chief was dead. They were safe. Weren't they?

"Greetings," Aurelia says to the waiting crowd, and she feels the room soften. They smile at her and return to their food.

In the corners of the room, Aurelia spies brightly coloured paints and planks of wood deep red, with brushes strewn between. They have been making _yema_ _chimes_ , small wooden planks to hang in clusters that tinkle when blown by the breeze. Only there are no breezes underground. The thought saddens her.

This is all that is left of the Yiga. Children, youngsters, strays, and all of them are barely more than children. Aurelia siddles in by her sister and holds a hand out expectantly. Hana hands her the bowl she was filling without a word.

"Smells nice," Aurelia says.

"Thank you," her sister responds.

Once all the bowls are handed out, they sit.

"Cejin help you?"

"No, just Mara," Hana narrows her eyes. "Remember? I'm to be accompanied at all times?"

 _Oh._ Of course. Aurelia wants to apologise, but Hana turns away from her a strikes up a conversation with Mara, who has sat next to her.

Cassiah would know what to do. She took most after their mother. She would know how to raise their baby sister without fear. But when Hana turned sixteen (' _As old as the Queen was when she defeated Ganon!')_ , everything about her became fear for Aurelia. She _saw_ the other Yiga boys looking at her sister, as much as they tried to hide it, and Hylians too.

Aurelia spies Rin across the table, and they share a smile. He is the star of the story here, sharing his tales on the road with the others. They beg him to show them his powers, but he will not. After half an hour of nagging, Rin finally agrees to show them one thing. He places a spoon in the middle of the table and holds his hands at his chest in the shape of a circle. He concentrates, and Aurelia feels the room _hum._

At once there is a flash of red light, and the spoon is sent flying across the room. It clangs against the stone wall and all but disappears. The room erupts in cheers. Ruth, her voice filling the room, demands to know how it is done.

"It's very simple, very simple," Rin answers. "It's all about focus. I will teach it to you once our Master has gained the skill."

All eyes are on Aurelia. She fights through her embarrassment. "Not long now," she says nervously.

"Of course," Rin returns.

After a moment the chatter continues, and soon lunch is over. Aurelia tells Hana she will find her after supper and departs. She feels the eyes of her people on her back as she leaves. A Master without magic. How far can their trust extend for one who is no better than them?

She hastens back to her room, tearful and determined to spend the rest of the day underground. Her sickle rests undisturbed by her bed, where it has sat for some time, thankfully not needed. Aurelia gives it a once-over, inspects the leather of the handle, polishes the metal of the blade. A teacher once told her that a blade was a reflection of the soul. She looks at the outer edge; imagines black blood on the tip. It was this blade that delivered her into the role of _Master_. She remembers the swing that did it. Aurelia catches her reflection on the flat of the blade. _My hand was forced_ , she tells it. _I tried to be merciful._

The sight of herself reminds her of something strangely easy to forget. Over her right eye, she wears an eyepatch; it has been this way for nearly two years and is so familiar to her that it takes an active awareness of it to remember. And now, she feels it itch. With a beleaguered sigh, Aurelia removes the eyepatch and oils the leather, applying some to the skin around her eyes where it has become chaffed. As she does so, she feels the scarred skin of her eyelid, where the right eye once was. It has healed closed and sometimes weeps, but the eyepatch keeps it clean.

She has forgotten now what it is to see with both eyes. Still, sometimes she feels something on her flank that her right eye might have seen. She jerks her head often, scanning her periphery. Often nothing is there. Often it is simply an unfamiliar face. There are many in the citadel. The fortress one held thousands. There are yet two hundred at the Citadel presently, but every day more arrive across the wooden bridge that Hudson built. Aurelia and her Yiga were already in residence at that time. She remembers sneaking up to have a look and spotting some Sheikah at the construction site, and their strange machinery that they used to hoist the timber across the chasm of Akkala Citadel. Judging the distance it was no less than two hundred foot, and Aurelia marvelled that something so spectacular could exist in Hyrule.

She daydreams of what a full life here could look like; of being able to spend her days out on the battlements, or living in rooms with windows, and being able to move freely and not need to hide. She tried to take her people home to Karusa, but that dark and hidden valley gave them nothing but sorrow. Akkala seemed like the furthest place they could go. Perhaps the Citadel was claustrophobic and unwelcoming, but where else could they go? Hyrule Castle? Aurelia laughs. They'd already tried that. Hyrule Castle stood empty for one hundred years, and so it was taken by _him_. _The Chief_. Aurelia followed him there out of some twisted loyalty. He promised her that all would be well. _He promised Cassiah would return._

Memories come to her then, of the time before, her childhood, her sisters and then...the massacre. She remembers his face, only for a second. Bright-red hair, callous smile, brilliant green eyes. The man among them, the man who usurped them; their self-appointed _Chief_ , standing above her, wielding a spiked bow, cutting down every masked and bladed Yiga in Karusa Valley. Only the acolytes are left. Only the young, who can be moulded to his will. There are bodies at her feet, bodies in the dust. Her people are whittled down until she, somehow, stands the tallest. She remembers cutting his throat. His death made her his successor. How could that be?

She wakes. The room is in darkness. Aurelia stumbles from her bed, realising she has dozed off. She hurries out of her room and back to where the Yiga had gathered. Only some remain. The food from lunch has been cleared, and the room cleaned. It must have been hours since she left. She will be late for her practice with Rin!

Aurelia rushes back to the stairwell of the Citadel and leaps up the stairs. She passes Hylians making their way inside and down into their sleeping cells, eager to escape the cold night air. She hears some of their sighs and chides as she passes. _Where is SHE off too?_ One whispers to their friend. _You can never know with them_ comes the reply.

On her way to the surface, however, she cannot help but stop for a moment at the level with the Library that she must not enter. She looks at the heavy wooden doors. Eight thousand years of knowledge is locked in there. What if there is something that could help? Some book about magic. It wouldn't need to be Yiga magic. Anything would do.

"Miss Aurelia! Howdy?" comes a jovial voice behind her.

Aurelia freezes but regains herself. She turns and smiles. A Hylian man is standing on the landing, a pile of plans and blueprints underarm.

"Mayor Hudson," she beams. "How's the little one?"

Hudson chuckles heartily, his high bowl-shaped hair jostling as he does. "Oh, well," he says, bursting with warmth and affection. "You know, she's doing just great. More surprises every day."

"That's lovely," Aurelia says, wondering how a rambunctious little Gerudo toddler could garner such love. She had not met the girl or her mother, and for good reason. There was little love between the Gerudo and the Yiga, and while both clans were strangers in Akkala, it did not predispose them to any kind of friendship. Hudson's wife would rather desecrate the very graves of the Seven Heroines than be seen with a Yiga, even a reformed one.

"Have I uh...have I caught you at a bad time, Miss Aurelia?" Hudson says after clearing his throat. "I was just heading into the library."

"Of course not, no," Aurelia answers. She becomes acutely aware that she now stands between Hudson and the library entrance. Hudson is stocky, but Aurelia stands almost a head taller than him. If he _wanted_ to move her, he could not, and Aurelia takes this small amount of power as far as she can. "Why?" she says innocently. "Is something the matter?"

"No! No, well, actually, no, of course not," Hudson stammers. He brushes some hair from his forehead nervously and shuffles his papers somewhat. "Listen, Aurelia, if you have the time, I do have something I'd like to discuss."

Aurelia braces herself. This could be anything from _Can you ask your men to eat less of my food_ to _You no longer have a place in my city_ , and Aurelia has mentally prepared for all.

"Well, some _things_ ," Hudson corrects himself. They eyes meet, and he laughs nervously. "No need to frown, Miss Aurelia, it's nothing serious."

Aurelia realises too late that she has been glaring, and softens. "I'm listening, Hudson," she says gently, and he relaxes, taking a deep breath.

"There is no easy way to ask this, but I am going to need to ask your people to sleep two to a cell. It's just the space and the Winter-"

"Wait, what?" Aurelia interjects. "Two to a cell?"

"The Citadel has more people arriving each day, and we must prepare for the harvest shipment to arrive from Necluda and Lanayru. It'll be any day now, and we need to be ready before Winter's Welcome, and I figured _you_ might-"

"You want our rooms? For what?"

"Storage, mostly, I think you can understand few people will want to share a wing with...um, well, you see…" he lets his voice peter off.

"You're taking _our rooms_ , for _storage!?_ "

"Just for the Winter!"

"We're only _here_ for the Winter! We agreed-"

"I'm sure you will manage-

"-and need I remind you that the Queen-"

"Please do not raise your voice."

"Ordered that my people- _excuse me?_ "

Hudson stares blankly up at her, unblinking and neutral. His own form of defiance.

"There is nothing to be discussed," he says quietly. "You will do as I have said."

There is an ugly pause. Aurelia cannot speak. No matter what she does, or says, Hudson's order stands. She could kill him, and it would only create more trouble. This is the reach of the Hylians, and she knows then how right he is; there is nothing to be discussed.

"There is the other matter. The footsoldier," Hudson continues.

"Rin is my charge," Aurelia all but begs. "Whatever he has done-"

But Hudson merely laughs. His eyes are half-moons as he says, "Oh, no, I meant, I saw him up there by the tower. He said to say this was the second time today you've made him wait and not to make it a habit! Ain't that funny?"

He laughs again, and Aurelia nervously joins him. Patting her on the arm, Hudson casually pushes past her towards the entrance of the Library. As he passes, he adds, "But between us, Miss Aurelia, perhaps we'd have an easier time adjusting to him if he dressed a little more ordinary. Like you do. I can't even imagine you in one of those masks! Well, good day!"

"I'll pass that on to him," Aurelia calls, watching Hudson disappear down the hallway. She hears a final jovial laugh, and he is gone.

Rin is waiting a second time by Akkala Tower. He seems mystified by the structure, gazing solidly up at it as Aurelia approaches. To her relief, he has no mask, though he retains his Yiga garb. Aurelia finds herself glad that he still wears it.

"Ready?" he asks when he sees her.

"Never, always," Aurelia answers.

"That's the spirit."

Aurelia scans the area before they begin. Thankfully no more of the Citadel's residents are hanging around the summit. She spies a guard or two on the wide outer stairs that way around the Citadel, and some more down at the battlements, but the summit is empty. Satisfies that they are alone, Aurelia unlatches the small bag tied at her belt; a payment of Mighty Bananas, couriered in from Faron. Akkala is too cold for them to grow on their own. Rin takes them gladly, giggling at their sight.

The Yiga stand opposite each other, hands placed across their stomachs, eyes closed. Aurelia hears Rin fiddling with his belt.

"Did you write on the papers I gave you?" he asks. Aurelia answers to the affirmative. "You need to give those your complete consideration. Our magic is reflexive, for all its brutality. Now, focus. The paper is an anchor, but you are something fluid. You can move _between_."

Aurelia takes a deep breath, steeling herself. She hears leather sliding against leather, Rin readying himself. She feels what he holds in his hand, sees it with an imagined third eye; a fine leather snake whip, braided in red and black.

 _I can, I can, I can_ , Aurelia tells herself, bracing for what will come and still she _yelps_ when the whip cracks. The sting bursts from her hands where the leather whip has bitten her, along her arms and into the sockets of her shoulders. She clenches her hands, breaths harder, thinks of the slips of red paper and the words she has written. _I am here_ ; _I am, I am._ Another crack. Aurelia whimpers. She tries to keep focus but her thoughts lurch, and she latches onto calm and comfort. The Akkalan appears before her. _Are we friends?_ She asks his hollow form.

A third whip crack and Aurelia falls forward, the pain slicing through her hands. "Enough!" she cries. She cannot do it. She cannot be the Master her clan needs. _I cannot, I cannot. I never will._ When she looks up, Rin has already begun to put away the whip.

"I agree," he says sadly. "Come here, let's have a look."

Aurelia stumbles over to him and holds out her hands. The last whip crack broke her skin, and the back of both hands are bleeding. Rin gently turns them over, traces a hand along them. Aurelia doesn't look, but she can feel what he is seeing.

"How long did you train for? You don't have many scars..."

"I was only an acolyte. The mas-" she struggles to speak. "The massacre happened halfway through my training."

Rin lets her hands drop. The movement makes them sting again, and Aurelia is caught so off guard that she stops.

"Perhaps you aren't ready," Rin frowns. "We may need to start at the beginning."

Aurelia flinches. " _No_."

"Aurelia-"

"No. This was a bad idea," she clutches her bleeding hands to her chest, backing away from Rin. "It's just magic. We don't need it."

"It's part of who we are. It's in our blood."

"Is it? Is it in our blood if we have to _hurt ourselves_ to gain it?"

"I don't know...it's tradition…" Rin says, giving her a sympathetic look. He beckons her back, but she does not move. "I'm only doing this because _you_ asked. You asked me to help you rebuild; _this_ is all I know."

He pulls a bandage from his belt and offers it out. Finally, Aurelia relents and returns to him. He begins to wrap her hands. She bites her lip, though the pain has already begun to numb.

"I don't envy you, Master Aurelia," Rin murmurs.

"You told me the training would be difficult," Aurelia says apologetically. She feels a fool now for losing her composure over a little pain.

"Not the training…" He does not say the rest, only sighs.

Above, Aurelia hears the sounds of something she knows, but cannot place. It is the sharp rustling of fabric, but it is too much. It becomes a roar, and she and Rin look up at a sky patterned with paragliders, raining down from Akkala Tower. Leading them is a bright blue paraglider, piloted by a short, stocky man, dressed in Hylian soldier regalia, blonde hair tied loosely and flapping behind him. Link! Or is it Captain Link, now?

Aurelia had not known he was still here; surely he would have gone home for the Winter. She scans the falling crowd. The Akkalan must be with them, but she cannot see him. "It's good we stopped," she says as she searches. "Would do no good to have the Hyrulean Knights stumbling on our practice."

Beside her, Rin is a mixture of awe and hesitance. He has retrieved his Windcleaver and looks ready to draw it. Instinct; so much for his repentance.

"Go," Aurelia tells him, gently pushing him towards the winding stairs that lead back down the Citadel. "Please Rin, they will see your garb and…"

Rin ignores her. He is bewitched. Around them the recruits begin to land, feet hammering against the ground. The wind through their paraglider sails sounds almost like rain, accompanied by a clap of thunder as in seeming unison they snap the sails shut.

"Is that really him?" Rin asks. " _The Hero_?"

Aurelia pushes him harder, wincing. The bandages on her hands are bloody now, and it hurts to even flex them. "I said go, Rin."

The young footsoldier pushes back. "I need to talk to him." His voice drops to a whisper. "Ask him what _Ganon_ was like."

"You can trade war stories later. As your…" She says the rest through gritted teeth. "As your Master, I'm ordering you."

Rin finally snaps from his trance. The recruits have seen them - have seen Rin, in all his red garb, with his taboo weapon over his shoulder. Link is calling their attention away but still some stare, and then there he is. The Akkalan.

"Enough gawking, or we'll have you doing laps again!" he calls to the group. They scurry away, joining the rest of the recruits, crying out _Right away, Inglis, sir!_

Rin takes this momentary peace as his leave, re-buckling his Windcleaver, and his belt, and promising to meet Aurelia in the same place tomorrow morning.

As soon as Rin departs, she wishes he hasn't. For when she turns back to the group of Hylians - now being lectured by Link on proper paraglider technique - she sees one has broken off and is heading her way. He waves as he jogs towards her, face bright and innocent. The Akkalan, Inglis, stealing a moment away from the training.

"Afternoon, Aury," he smiles, and then his face drops. He sees the bloody bandages, and immediately, almost painfully, takes her hands into his own. Chancing a look over his shoulder, Inglis ushers Aury out of sight of the recruits, to the other side of Akkala Tower. She does not fight him. It is comforting, to feel pliable. To feel weak.

Inglis examines her hands, unravelling the bandages carefully, thumbing the edges of the cuts. "Not this again," he murmurs. He catches her gaze, eyes watery. "You told me you would leave this behind. For our sake."

Aurelia wants to resist. There is no collective, no _ours_. Inglis is not hers. He is not bound to her people, despite once being a recruit among them. He was only a 'Yiga' for six months, not born to them as Aurelia was. And he was...perhaps, when it happened, he was young, and knew no better. But he still once stood on the other side. For a time, no matter how brief, he belonged to another. To the _Chief_.

But the pain of the way he says it. _Our sake._

"I just wanted to recover some of it," she tells him, mustering up her remaining defiance. "I thought if I could harness Yiga-born powers then our people could have a fighting chance."

Inglis pinches his nose, scoffs. "What good is magic? It's why your people had to fight in the first place, isn't it?"

"Sheikah Technology isn't magic."

Inglis looks up at the looming tower, pulsating with blue energy. "Are you sure about that?"

Aurelia does her own assessment. She studies the tower, the way the light seems too constant and clear to simply be man-made. She reaches out, runs her hand over the mesh.

"You know, I've heard talk about the Queen's new Academy. At the Great Plateau, for mages. You could go there."

Aurelia isn't listening. Something has caught her attention; something that wasn't there before she passed her hand over the ancient metal.

"...I heard the Gerudo Chief is running it. She's not even fifteen…"

It's a cut. A shimmering cut. Not in the metal but...somehow deeper.

"Aurelia?"

She peers deeper, looking closer at the tiny laceration. It looks superimposed. A cut into reality itself.

There is something in there. Sinister and growling and gurgling. Eyes looking back at her, their intent cruel. Malicious.

Aurelia blinks, and the eyes are gone, but the cut remains. From within there are voices. Familiar voices; her own voice, words she has spoken and will never speak and then - Aurelia touches it.

As soon as her fingers make contact with the shimmering light, she falls, inward and forward, into the space between.

* * *

The voices come first. Disparate whispers and caught words here and there. A man's voice, a woman's voice, pain and confusion in the words, and then laughter, and then nothing.

In time they coalesce. She catches sentences. I won't do this. Is that really you, child? What a terrible place.

The void begins to take form. Shapeless dark around her becomes wisps of smoke. Then it is air; then, it is warmth. She feels the grass under her feet. She breathes. Opens her eyes. Eyes. She blinks. Something is wrong.

She is walking. There is a...wagon beside her. She hears the creaks of its wheels. There is a rider sitting at the front; silver-haired, dressed in white garb, traditional. It's so familiar. She looks down and sees she is wearing the same and as she does her own hair falls across her face; white, pure white, like silver.

Sheikah. She is Sheikah. Wait; no, she isn't. Part of her knows...she is no longer Sheikah.

How could that be? What could cause this loss of identity?

The edge of the world is in mist, but slowly it begins to fade into view. The wagon rises to the peak of a hill, and the rider scoffs.

"Akkala, what a terrible place."

She looks to where he looks. Beyond the hill is a great site of construction. A huge, circular city is being built atop a mountain. Into a mountain. It is only half done, builders scurrying across its white marble surface that is beginning to emerge out of the stone.

Akkala. This is Akkala. And not only that; this is Akkala Citadel. Before it was complete. She wants to cry out. This cannot be. The Citadel was built thousands of years ago. She cannot be here, and yet, she is. She hangs in this dissonance; this dream, where she isn't herself, and still somehow she is.

The rider bangs the side of the wagon. "Nearly there, Doc," he calls out.

"Very well, Iban," comes the muffled reply from inside. "I'll thank you not to notify me so loudly in future."

The rider, Iban, looks to her and ushers her up to the rider's seat. She doesn't know what to do and yet moves anyway. The words come without her consent.

"Don't pester him," she says quietly. "He'll suspect something."

"I forgot, you still have second doubts, don't you Maya?"

Maya. Her name is Maya. No, it isn't. It's something else. It was... How did she get here? Who are these people?

Maya speaks for her. "I just want this done without fuss."

Iban laughs. Inside she fights, but Maya is still in control. She is but a passenger in this dream. She is…who is she?

"Let your bladed brother to the work, little one," Iban says with a smile. "The old man will never know." He covers his eyes from the sun and sighs. "I thought being so far north, the summers here would be different."

Maya peeks up at the sun. "Preferable to the desert."

The desert. She is from the desert. She was born there, raised there too. She and Maya share a people. The...The Yiga.

She is Yiga. She is a girl named for the sun-gold of her hair.

 _Aurelia._

The world dissolves, and she is delivered back into the light.

* * *

When Inglis' face appears, feathered at the edges and smoothed by the sudden morning light, Aurelia wonders half-awake if he too is a dream. He is panicking, holding her limp in his arms. She can hear him muttering, pleading, _are you okay? Aurelia, can you hear me?_

"Are we friends?" she croaks in response. And then, when he doesn't answer: "How could we ever be friends?"

Inglis' face is unintelligible, mangled even, shifting from concern to confusion as he lifts her to her feet. "Can you stand? How do you feel?" he asks.

Aurelia does not answer. She looks back to the tower, sees the slice in the tower that delivered her into that strange dream. She is not learned in sorcery, though few are in this modern age, and so she doesn't question what it is, or how it got there. The answer is evident to her.

Someone left it there to find. Someone Yiga, like Aurelia, thousands of years ago when the clan was still young. Maya was her name. Maya of Karusa Valley.

Wriggling from Inglis' grip, Aurelia wearily approaches the tower. Behind her, Inglis calls out.

"No, don't! It's dangerous!"

Aurelia reaches out. "Is it?"

Inglis is at her side in an instant, strong fingers wrapped around her forearm to halt her. "You collapsed."

"Then catch me again," Aurelia says. Tugging her arm free, she places a hand against the mark a second time, ready to hear the rest of Maya's story.

* * *

 **A/N: Back after a hiatus! This is a three-parter and will be updating each week :)**


	7. The Rise and Fall of the Yiga, Ch 2

It may be hard for you to understand what we became. So many promises were made to our people. We would rule, but first we needed to would win, but first we needed to survive.

Survival, that's what it was.

We were sold survival, but it was the lives of others that paid. All those people felled by our blades, all those years hating our ancestry, all the wrongdoings to our name and the hate directed our way; it was necessary for our survival.

After a while, it grew old. We became something else; we became...people, with customs and history and problems of our own. Some of us, those we called _bladed_ , sought to continue our original purpose. They hunted knights, they terrorised travellers, they even attacked the royal fleet, many years ago.

But most of us lived a quiet life. Some of us learnt to fight, some of us even learnt magic. The rest? Well, everyone needs cooks, and farmers, and healers.

We recruited too, taking in strays without family or fortune. Mostly Hylians, the occasional Sheikah. And once every few years, a Gerudo. And later, an Akkalan.

That was where it began, the rise of our Chief, and the fall of the Yiga.

* * *

 **Fall**

 _What a terrible place._

 _Is that really you, child?_

 _I won't do this. I will not become...this._

She opens her eyes and is once again the passenger, the landscape familiar, her body vaguely the same but ultimately belonging to someone else. She is Maya and Aurelia, and as one they sit on the front of a carriage beside their brother, Iban. They ride along a narrow path, two broad-shouldered horses pulling them forward, high cliffs to their right and a deep valley to their left, filled at the bottom with shimmering water. The ground is not paved, and their carriage rolls laboriously over rough dirt where the grass has been worn away.

In the far distance, the primordial Akkala Citadel looms. Its foundational facade has been built, but the raw mountain still rises above that. Aurelia can see the first layer of stairs beginning to wind around the rock. Strengthened lucidity allows her to remember that Akkala Citadel was built in just one year, and stood for eight thousand years before the second Calamity.

This must be when she is, then. Eight thousand years ago, living this day in someone else's life.

A thudding tap against the wood from the inside the carriage door startles her. "Are we nearly there, Iban?" comes the muffled, gravelly voice.

"Almost at the Akkala Span, Dr Kahil," Iban answers. When he speaks the old man's name, Aurelia is suddenly given a vision of muted colour. She sees only wisps, the detail lacking, like fine impressions on a faded carving. An old researcher, with white hair as hers but a face made of wrinkles. He stands barely five feet fall; a desk full of books and diagrams, reading to a class of children, boarding the carriage in a swampy place surrounded by mountains, a slate-like artefact tied to his belt. On its back, an open eye, glowing and ready. Memories, they must be. Memories within this dream of another life. Kahil must be a Sheikah researcher. He specialises in Sheikah technology and has come to Akkala to...to…

The memory isn't strong enough, but still, Aurelia grips onto the knowledge of what she has seen and lets it fill out some colour of the dream. There is a Sheikah Tower at Akkala Citadel, but it is hidden in the rock. That must be why they have come, to see the tower. Or perhaps something else? She realises she doesn't know, and that this anxiety is not hers alone. It permeates her host.

Maya feels...out of place. Like an _imposter_. It is a familiar feeling, and Aurelia recognises it immediately. But why? As she ponders, Maya begins to speak.

"You...you have everything?" she asks, her tone urgent.

"Of course, little sister," Iban answers.

"Even the papers?"

Iban lets out a beleaguered sigh and whips the horse's reins. "Leave me be, Maya. You're only here to observe."

Aurelia feels more words caught in Maya's throat, but nothing is said. Maya turns away and lowers her head. Looking down into her lap she regards her gloved hands, her white hair falling about her face. The fabric and the colouring of her garb are distinctly Sheikah; clean whites and greys, some navy blue, thin layers of cotton and thinly spun wool. The clothes are new. Too new for a mercenary; that must be what Maya is, surely? A Sheikah mercenary escorting this old man across the land?

Tucking a finger under the glove of her right hand, Maya pulls back the leather just enough to reveal a small tattoo on the underside of her wrist. It is an open eye, upside down, marked in ocre-red ink; a Yiga tattoo. Aurelia feels the urge to gasp.

Suddenly the hand is slapped away, and Iban harshly whispers, "Hide that."

Maya pouts and re-covers her wrist. In the silence that follows, Aurelia begins to understand. She carries the same symbol on her own right wrist. It was given to her at twelve, like all born to the Yiga. This woman, dressed in Sheikah garb and bearing Sheikah hair cannot be anything but Sheikah; but the tattoo on her arm is a secret symbol that points to the truth.

And therefore, Maya is both. Sheikah _and_ Yiga; she is an imposter, a traitor to her own clan, masquerading as an honest woman.

"I just wanted to check it was still there," Maya murmurs. "This posting has brought back memories. I miss it, in some ways."

"No, you don't."

"Iban-"

"You were never Sheikah. Say anything else like that again, and I will report you to the Master." Iban gives the horses reins another whip. "You should know better."

The rest of the journey across the cliffs of Akkala is passed in numbing silence, though humming occasionally rises from the carriage. The songs the old man sings stir something in Maya, and Aurelia too. She feels a sense of recognition, that wonderful sinking feeling of nostalgia. Maya picks at her gloves, breathes deep, but her anxiety is not soothed.

Soon enough they arrive at the Akkala Span, an enormous stone bridge that crosses the wide valley that separates Akkala from the rest of Hyrule. If they are truly going to the Citadel then they will need to cross a second bridge - the Bridge of Akkala as Aurelia knows it - and she feels a rising excitement at seeing it as it once was. Maybe she could take the what she sees back to the Sheikah in her time; tell them what the bridge once looked like, help them restore it! The feeling catches, she feels it in her chest - that hope, pure as it is - just long enough before it sours. The Sheikah would never listen to her, a Yiga. She would need white hair and a tattoo like that girl in Kakariko had before they would even consider her ideas.

Perhaps that is why; perhaps Maya is here to negotiate as an intermediary. She is both Sheikah and Yiga, maybe she is trying to fix things between the clans. Only Aurelia knows the way that story ends, and it is not with a reconciliation. Far from it.

At the Akkala Span, she sees guards at the bridge entrance. This must be what the _papers_ that Maya referred to are for. Iban leads their horses up to the bridge entrance and leaves to go confer with the guards.

"Hold the reins steady," he says in parting.

There is a guard on each side of the bridge entrance, both young men. They're royal guards, Aurelia sees, their insignia not much different from those on Link and Inglis' armour: the open-winged bird, with the three golden triangles between its wings. Maya's heart is racing, her hands shaking as she holds the reins. Dread, wells up in her stomach like an acid. Does she fear being caught out? Or something worse?

"Travel papers?" one of the guards says. "Don't see many of your people on the road these days."

"Not after the schism, no," Iban says. He rummages through his pack.

"Hm, I've heard about those damned Yiga, if that's what they're calling themselves."

"Aye, something like that. Sorry, just, one minute-" Iban continues searching his papers, and Aurelia feels her chest rising. This is it; this is what Maya feared.

Maya closes her eyes. Breathes. She distracts herself, and the images of the past come at once.

Yiga. Sheikah. Aurelia feels the memories that Maya recalls. She sees a great temple and a people that once lived there. She sees a village secreted away in the mountains of Necluda; a place she has been to. She sees a young girl, only a child, born with silver hair, and her elder brother, bulky and strong. There is fighting, bickering amongst the people of white. Shouting, screaming. The people become two; opposing sides, one with eyes up, the other with eyes down. And then, the little girl and her brother are being led away, led across the Kingdom until the grass beneath their feet turns to mud and then rock and then sand. Aurelia sees a valley that splits a long line of cliffs. It is here that the girl and her brother are taken. A place so familiar that Aurelia does not need someone else's memories to know it. It was once her home too.

The Guard has lost his patience. "Don't waste my time, do you have the papers or not?" he barks. Maya snaps open her eyes.

Iban has stopped searching. He drops his pack, his hand going to his belt. Maya leaps from the carriage seat but Iban signals for her to halt.

His hand is on the hilt his weapon, a thin single-edged blade that nearly scrapes the ground. It is then that Aurelia notices a simple bow on his back too, and a quiver strapped to his belt. Iban casts a single, sharp glance back towards them. "Stay back, sister."

Maya steps forward, a hand outstretched. "Iban, don't-"

"I said-" Iban draws his sword. "-stay _back!_ " He drives it through the guard's chest before the man can even react, and then pivots, drawing his bow, and pinning the second guard to the far post with an arrow through the neck. Maya screams.

"Iban! What are you doing!?"

He sheathes his sword and marches back towards the carriage. "Turns out I forgot the papers."

Behind them, the carriage door opens and out hobbles an old man that can only be Kahil. He is feebler than Aurelia expected, and tiny, wearing long robes, his hair tied into a bun decorated with charms and pins. He sees the dead guard and freezes and then looks to Maya and Iban with horror. "Y-you…?"

Before Maya can speak, Iban is shoving her towards the carriage. He grabs Kahil next and hauls them both into the carriage.

"Keep him quiet," he orders. "We need him to get to the summit." And then he slams the door shut.

Maya and Kahil sit opposite each other, eyes locked. Soon the carriage begins again. Maya does not move; she, like Aurelia, is in shock. The killings were so quick they barely made any noise. She could have stopped them. She should have stopped _him._ Those guards were just boys. Maya's hands shake. She clenches her fists.

Kahil reaches for the handle of the carriage door, and in a flash Maya has crossed the space between them, pinning him against the back of the carriage by the neck. Her hands feel afire with energy, as though her blood is boiling beneath her skin. The feeling is entirely foreign to Aurelia, and she wonders...is it _magic_?

"Hey! Hey-!" come the strangled protests, but Maya does not let up. "Don't-"

"Cooperate or he will kill you, do you understand?" Maya says through gritted teeth. Still, Kahil struggles, and she presses harder against his throat. Her skin burns. " _Do you understand?_ "

Kahil stares at her for a moment, his brows furrowed. "M-Maya?" he croaks. "Is that really you, child?"

He looks down, sees the tattoo on her wrist. "No," he breathes.

Maya blinks. At once the welling anger in her recedes, and Aurelia feels her host calm. It is she has been blinded by a great light and is coming too. She releases him, moving her hand instead to the handle of the carriage, and holding it firmly shut.

"I had hoped it wasn't you," Kahil goes on. "That you weren't among them…"

"It doesn't matter," Maya says. She does not look him in the eye, instead peers through the tiny window in the carriage door. The low walls of Akkala Span pass by.

"You were such a promising student. Do you still...do you still practice?"

There is a curiosity in his voice, Aurelia notices. He sounds so hopeful, despite the circumstances of their meeting. They must have known each other well, in the time before.

Maya seems to ignore his question. "Do not try to run, please. Both Iban and I can easily outpace you, even without our abilities."

" _Our_?" Kahil baulks. "Iban too? But he was never-"

"They found a way… to force it. Something in their blood." Maya's tone is level, though Aurelia senses in her the way her heart races. Kahil sinks lower into his seat, though his eyes never leave Maya.

"So it is true, then," he sighs. "The Yiga are _blood mages_. But... I suppose so were we."

"Just do as he says and he won't-"

Kahil's laugh stops her mid-sentence. It is surprisingly light. He smiles. "Won't...kill me? I wish I could be so naive. Ah, Maya, you're still the little adept I taught in Kakariko, no matter how far they took you, or what they did to you."

Maya tightens her grip on the carriage door handle, biting her lip. Aurelia feels the welling of tears in her eyes, but Maya blinks them away. She looks long and hard out the tiny window and says no more.

Once they cross Akkala Span, the Bridge of Akkala is not far. Aurelia sees the way the scenery changes from cliffs to plains until they reach the second stone bridge. She is not able to see its make as she hoped. Instead, she is trapped within the carriage with Maya and the old researcher who was once her teacher. She hears Iban talking with what must be another guard, and she hears Kahil's name. No papers here, it seems. Only the name of an esteemed Sheikah to get them access to the construction site of Akkala Citadel.

The carriage rolls to a halt and Iban soon throws open the doors.

"No time to waste, let's get going," he says. Maya grabs Kahil by the arm and pulls him from the carriage. They have stopped at the far side of the Bridge of Akkala, at the very base of the tall rock into which Akkala Citadel is being built. In front of them, the first wind of the huge outer stairwell rises.

"Slow, child, slow!" Kahil whines. "I might be your prisoner now, but I'm still an old man."

"You're not here to talk," Iban snaps. He looks to Maya. "Let him go. He's not going to escape."

" _That_ much is clear," Kahil scowls. He gives Iban a deathly glare, clearly thinking him an abomination or a trespasser on the old Sheikah magicks. He passes Maya a glance too, but one far more mournful, and then turns towards the stairs. With Maya and Iban walking side-by-side behind him, the climb to the summit begins.

With each step, the vision begins to haze. Her feet feel lighter. The sky grows dark.

Passenger and host separate, and the dream ends.

* * *

"Aurelia?"

Awareness begins to return. The room around her is dim, the air dry. Aurelia smells mould and earth, oil and leather, something else too. Wound salve and honey. And smoke. That's what it is. Where is the open sky? The Citadel? Why was it so dark? Whose voice was that?

"Thank the goddess," comes the voice again, and then it's owner fills her vision. A somewhat plain-looking young man, with brown hair and pale skin. He is missing an ear, just like she is missing an eye. An overzealous Zora took it from him during the Queen's assault on Hyrule Castle to rid it of the Yiga, Aurelia was told. "I'm glad you're okay," Inglis says softly.

Aurelia giggles. "Really?"

He nods, places a hand on her forehead to test her temperature. "You really gave me a scare," he says. "You went out like a light. But I did what you said - I caught you - and here we are."

Inglis' presence reminds her of where she is, and another scan of the room gives her the exact location; her large and sparse cell deep within Akkala Citadel. The fire has been lit. She is lying on her bed, still dressed for training with Rin. Training, that's where she was. And at its end, she found _something_ at Akkala Tower. Some strange window to another life.

She sits up slowly. "What time is it?"

"Morning," Inglis answers. "You were out all night."

" _All night!_ And you...you waited?"

He shrugs. "I dozed a few times."

Inglis of Akkala, ever by her side. In her haze she forgets her apprehensions towards him; forgets what he did and who he was. With a bandaged hand Aurelia reaches up to brush some hair behind that phantom ear of his and sees that he is blushing. Why was he doing all this for her? She had never been especially kind to him. Had she? "Are we friends?" she asks him.

The question seems to disturb him, and at first, he does not answer. "Aurelia," he sighs. "You already-"

 _Thud!_ There is a bang on her door. And another. _Thud! Thud!_ " _MASTER AURELIA!"_ comes the shout.

Inglis snaps away and hurries to the door. The young man waiting there is one of hers - Lee, a combat acolyte like Aurelia, he too born with blonde hair. He is puffing and red-faced, his hair hung in light streaks across his face. He struggles to catch his breath, wheezing out the words, "Come quick… _huff_ p-please _huff huff_ Cejin! Hana!"

" Hana!? Where!?" Aurelia demands. She leaps from the bed, momentarily stumbling as her legs lag behind her heart in awakening.

"The k-kitchens _huff_ ," Lee pants. "The Hylians _-_!"

Aurelia is out of her room in an instant, heading towards the stairwell. "Look after him," she shouts back at Inglis. "Get him some water!"

Two, three steps at a time she bounds up towards the kitchens until she too is almost out of breath. A million thoughts race through her mind; what could be happening? Cejin and her sister Hana, _together_!? With Hylians to witness! Her stomach is a hard, molten lump within her as she dreads what she will find. There are shouts above her, no doubt coming from the kitchens. _Goddess preserve me_. She feels as though she could vomit.

The kitchens are a scene of chaos. Two Hylian men have tackled someone to the floor. One is larger, delivering huge, heavy blows with his first, and the other is scrawny, resorting to feeble kicks at the figure on the ground. By the dining tables is Mara, fighting against a third Hylian man in a vain attempt to intervene, and Sahn behind her with her babe held tight in her arms. They are both shouting, their words are drowned out. But it is the sight on the far side of the room that makes Aurelia's stomach _plummet_. Hana is huddled against the wall, curled into a ball, her face red from tears. "Don't!" she wails. "Don't hurt him."

"Hana!" Aurelia cries, moving to reach her sister when she catches a glimpse of _who_ is on the floor. Cejin, his face bloodied and swollen. She lunges for the Hylians beating him, wrestles weakly to pull them off. " _STOP!"_ she screams, but they ignore her. " _STOP IT!"_

In desperation, she wraps an arm around one of the Hylians' necks and pulls. She hears him gasp and his retaliation comes as an elbow straight into Aurelia's gut. She retches loses her grip and falls. " _Aury!_ " she hears in the distance. A shrill voice, one so young. Hana's. It calls her to stand.

Fighting her dizziness, Aurelia hauls herself to her feet. There are more shouts, now from the kitchen entrance as Inglis bursts in. " _What the hell is going on!?"_ he barks, and the Hylians leap away from Cejin. Aurelia uses the lull to race over to Hana, and the sisters rush into each other's arms. Hana wails, shaking so violently that Aurelia has to hold her tight against her chest.

"I'm sorry," her sister whispers. "I'm so sorry. We shouldn't have come here, we shouldn't have..."

Inglis has gone to Cejin, assessing him, checking he is still awake. Mara finally breaks through the third Hylian and falls at Cejin's side. She rolls him into his side, tells him to breathe, tells him everything will be okay.

Inglis looks up at the two Hylians expectantly. They are panting from the encounter, and do not speak.

"Well?" Inglis barks at them.

"This, this Yiga... _scum_ had his hands on that girl!" the bulky Hylian says. "They have no right to frighten our people like that."

"She's Yiga, idiot!" Aurelia shouts. "They're both Yiga."

The Hylians freeze. "W-well how would you know?" whimpers the scrawny one, shrinking away. He stands behind the bulkier Hylian, a coward.

"I'm their leader. She's my _sister_."

The bulky Hylian's face is downturned and sour as rotting lemons. He claps his hands to his chest in a brutish display. "How were we supposed to know? She doesn't look like the others." He points to Aurelia. "N-neither do you!"

Beside Cejin, Mara pulls back the sleeve of her tunic, revealing the red tattoo of the Yiga eye on her wrist. She holds it up towards the bulky Hylian. "Does this symbol look Hylian to you, boy?"

"Get that out of my sight, scum," he snaps.

Both Inglis and Mara look ready to jump the Hylian then, and the Hylian equally ready to retaliate. Just as the tension in the room seems ready to snap, Hudson marches in. He too is panting, having likely run to the kitchens from another level upon hearing the commotion.

"What is all this _racket_!?" he demands.

Half a dozen voices ring out at once, and he holds up his hands. "Stop, stop!" He points to the Hylians. "Otho, tell me."

"This Yiga was harassing that girl," the bulky Hylian named Otho says. "He tried to kill me!"

Cries ring out from the Yiga. Aurelia's is among them. " _Liar!_ " she shouts. "How dare you-"

The Hylian pulls back a sleeve. "He hit me! Look, Hudson, see!"

"You're lying! There's _nothing there_!"

The scrawny Hylian grabs Otho lightly by the shoulder, brows upturned. "Hey man, c'mon, why are you-"

Otho ignores him. He gives Hudson a pitiful look. "There'll be a bruise there soon!"

Hudson is tight-lipped. He regards Cejin, who Mara has been able to coax into a sitting position, though his face is so swollen that his eyes are held closed.

"He's one of yours?" he asks Aurelia.

"Yes," Aurelia breathes. "But he's innocent. Hudson, please, listen to me-"

Hudson waves towards the third Hylian, who Aurelia suddenly recognises as one of the Citadel's guards. "Take the boy away," he orders. "Down to the cells, until he comes to his senses."

 _No!_ Again the room rings with shouting voices, Aurelia's and Mara's, Inglis and Hana's too, but the guard is already hauling Cejin to his feet.

Otho is grinning ear to ear. He crosses his arms smugly, laughing. Cejin coughs and red blood splatters on the tiles.

"Wait, please, he's hurt," Aurelia pleads. She, Hana and Mara rushing towards Cejin, but Otho steps between them. They push against him, but he does not move.

"Hudson, _please_ ," Aurelia calls out. "He's one of mine, please, he's just a boy-"

Otho scoffs. "He's violent! You all are. You're criminals."

"Get off, man," the scrawny Hylian says, trying to pull Otho away. It is only when Inglis again intervenes that he steps aside, but there is nothing Aurelia can do. Cejin is firmly in the grip of the guard. She reaches for Hana, and they hold each other as he is led away.

By the doors, Hudson watches with a frown. Aurelia catches his eye. "Please," she says. "He's just a boy, he's hurt-"

Hudson shakes his head. "I'm sorry, Aurelia. Look at the stir he's caused. I...I have to put my people first. It'll only be for a few days until all this blows over." He motions to Inglis. "C'mon then. Let's make sure the boy is settled safe in his cell." Inglis gives Aurelia a sorry look and has no choice but to follow. The men depart, as though nothing has occurred.

Hana has begun to weep again. Aurelia holds her tighter. Soon Mara is there too, an arm around Aurelia, and then Sahn, cradling her child in one arm, and Hana in the other. The women embrace each other, unable to do anything more.

* * *

From the fire, embers chase one another up the chimney. They spin, pursuit dogged by eddies of bright, hot air. And then they are gone. Aurelia watches, her single eye trained on the sparks of light, and considers throwing another log on the fire. She would not sleep this night.

Her day had been spent in a crisis meeting with the other Yiga, answering their questions about what had unfolded in the kitchens. She tried to give an honest account but did not goad her sister to do the same. Hana had gone to Mara's room, to sleep and cry and be soothed.

Once she had explained the situation, it took all of Aurelia's diplomatic might to prevent her people from burning down Akkala Citadel then and there. Lee, the acolyte who raised the alarm, demanded the Hylians pay retribution. Sahn pleaded with Aurelia for the clan to leave the Citadel at once, for their own safety. Even Rin, adamant that Aurelia would choose the best course, expressed fear at what could happen next. The fighting lasted hours until Aurelia promised to ensure Cejin was treated well and would be returned to them soon, and that she _personally_ would free him.

At last, she throws a log on the fire. Behind her, there is a door. It beckons, asks the question, but Aurelia does not answer. Embers sputter, pricking against her skin. One lands on her sleeve and in a flurry of pain and fear that it will cause her robe to catch she shoves the fabric backwards along her arm - and there it is.

An open eye, straight and clear, tattooed upside down on her wrist, with a teardrop falling impossibly upwards. It is a curse. On their wrists, on their masks. Empty eyes painted onto cold ceramic. Cassiah had one of those masks, but it is lost now. Broken, forgotten, left behind in Karusa Valley.

What was left could only exist if they were unseen. They had to hide, just like that woman from the dream. It haunts Aurelia to think of it, the shame in that old researcher's eyes when he realised what Maya had become…

Aurelia looks down at her hands. She can still feel the old man's throat in her grasp, and the rising energy in her hands. She blinks.

Something is _different_. When she rubs her fingers together, she feels something...beneath. What happened up there at the tower? That cut in the metal...what was it? What did it _do_?

Inglis would know. But will she ask?

The door behind her burns. _Are we friends?_

In the hallway beyond is another door; his door. _My people hurt you._

Aurelia stands, shaking, pads around for her leather eyepatch. _Hunted you._

She finds her slippers, douses the fire. _And you us, in return._

Why couldn't he come to her room, for once?

Inglis answers the door after the third set of knocks. He is dishevelled, his free hand rubbing sleep sore eyes. "You okay?" he asks when he sees her. Aurelia shakes her head and is immediately welcomed into his room.

His fire has burnt down but still has embers. Beside the mantle, Aurelia sees a longsword outside of its hilt, and behind that, a pair of metal greaves. A gift, from Link, on Inglis' acceptance into the Hyrulean Order of Knights.

He would be leaving soon. He had been Knighted not long ago. Was that for the best?

Inglis has already climbed into bed and is holding the coverlets open for her. This is the moment that she always fears; that it is all a lie, a terrible joke. That he isn't a promise of warmth but a trap.

"It's okay, Aury," Inglis says quietly. He says this every time she comes. "I'm here."

As he is holding up the covers, the underside of his wrist is exposed; it is blank. He does not have the same tattoo that she does. And that is how it should be. He isn't truly Yiga. He joined less than a year before the massacre. He was born _here_ , in Akkala.

Aurelia climbs into bed, folds into him. She closes her eye and lets herself forget who he is, who she is, where they are. She becomes feeling, and nothing else.

When they are done Inglis wants to hold her, but Aurelia cannot bear it. She lets him wrap an arm around her until he has fallen asleep, and then she rolls away. She already feels she has done too much, no matter how warm he feels or how sweetly he speaks. The truth of it is always there, waiting to be remembered. _Inglis belongs to me_ , the Chief said, in his last moments. _My regime ends with him._

Aurelia is not quiet enough. Inglis wakes and catches her trying to dress.

He sits up in bed, reaching for her, and interlaces their hands. "Hey, where are you going?"

Aurelia pulls away. "I'm...fine. I'm just...not sleepy." She continues to dress, turning away. She cannot look at him now.

"How are you feeling?" He asks. "After...you know."

"The tower, or the kitchens?"

"Any of it."

Aurelia pauses. If she is going to ask, it will be now. Why is she so afraid?

"Tell me what happened, up at the tower. Did you...see anything?"

Inglis shrugs. He throws back the covers, climbing naked from the bed. As he speaks, he begins to dress. "I dunno. You just passed out again. What were you looking at?"

"You couldn't see anything?"

"What did _you_ see?"

Aurelia furrows her brows. The truth is she wasn't sure, and now she wonders if the dream was just that...a dream. She continues to dress and says no more.

"I'm sorry, what happened today," Inglis murmurs. "It isn't fair. They can't do this to our people."

At that, Aurelia turns. "...our people?"

"You know, to the Yiga. Just because of what came before…" He is lacing up his trousers when he looks up and stops. "What is it?"

Aurelia blinks at him. She tries to dampen the rising anger within her but cannot.

"They're not _ours_ ," Aurelia whispers, shaking. "They're not _yours._ "

"What are you talking about?"

"You're not _Yiga_ , Inglis." Aurelia snaps. "There is a boy down in the prisons, an innocent boy. One of my own. I am their leader, and I couldn't even protect him. What did _you_ do, Inglis?"

Her outburst stuns them both. They stare at each other. There it is again; the draining feeling in her chest. She felt it in the dream, with Maya, when the woman lost her temper at the old Sheikah researcher. Were she and the woman in the dream so alike?

"I-I'm sorry, Aury," Inglis says after some time. "I know I'm not Yiga _born_ but, but what about the time after? Didn't we serve together at Hyrule Castle? Didn't I help you escape?"

"That doesn't matter-"

Inglis crosses the space between them. He offers out his hands. They are unscarred, and smooth, though they are calloused. They are not like hers. "Why not?"

She cannot say it. She cannot relive the memory that still haunts her or the blows that came after. If she does, she will lose him. She will lose the warmth of this place and the feeling of abandon. She will be an empty woman.

"Promise me it's all behind you, no matter what happened," Aurelia says.

"Of course," Inglis answers. He sighs. "Cinna is dead now, Aury. You can let it go."

Not waiting for her to accept, he takes her hands in his, and it is as if they _burn_. Aurelia wrenches her herself free, yelping.

Inglis startles. " _Hey_ -"

In a flurry, Aurelia gathers her clothes, backing away towards his door. "I need to go, I'm sorry. I should never have come."

"Hey, wait-" Inglis tries to follow, but Aurelia holds up a hand. He stops. On his face is the blankness of not understanding. The sight of him for a moment disgusts her.

"What did I do wrong?" he asks feebly.

"Never say his name to me," Aurelia says, opening his door to leave. " _Never_."

* * *

The prisoners are waiting for her. It is dawn, and Aurelia has returned down to the depth of Akkala Citadel as she does every dawn. Only now she carries three meals instead of two.

There is a storage cabinet in the prison cells. Aurelia fumbles with the keys Hudson has given her and unlocks it. The cabinet is empty save two sickles taken from the prisoners. Aurelia stores the food she has brought in the cabinet. She is not ready to hand it over yet. First; questions.

Taking a torch from the wall, Aurelia approaches the bars of the cell, and light fills the damp and dark hovel of which the prisoners have been given. All three gaze up at her in silence; the two unrepentant Yiga, and Cejin huddled near unconscious against the back wall.

"Come to visit us again, Traitor," croons a deceptively gentle voice. It belongs to the Yiga woman sitting closest to the cell door, Io, a Yiga footsoldier found in the wastes of Gerudo by Rin. She has removed her mask, revealing a scarred face, and short black hair. Her eyes are a startling blue, and in another circumstance, she would be beautiful.

"I've come to check on my charge," Aurelia says.

The other Yiga footsoldier gives a low chuckle. He reaches over and pats Cejin on the shoulder, "This little desert fox? He's fine. We didn't hurt him." Cejin shudders and shuffles away from him.

"Be gentle, Cadma," Io scolds him lightly. "That poor boy has been in quite the fight." She looks up at Aurelia pointedly. "With his own kind, or with theirs?"

"It doesn't matter."

Io laughs. "I suppose not."

Aurelia kneels, so she is eye level with the Yiga woman, though she makes sure to keep out of her reach. Though she feels her heart beating, she keeps a calm demeanour. She cannot falter.

"I have a question or two for you," she says. "And then you will get your food."

Io raises a brow. "Making deals now hm? I didn't know you had a tough side."

"I'm actually incredibly generous, with those who cooperate."

An amused smile rises on Io's lips. She waves Aurelia on. Behind her, Cadma is watching with only passive interest. Fine, it doesn't matter if they won't take her seriously. They will still want to eat and will answer her questions. Aurelia begins.

"Question one: why haven't you tried to escape?"

"We aren't mages, plain and simple," Cadma answers. "Even if we were, Yiga magic is limited by what we can see. Your friend Rin cannot teleport beyond what his eyes give him."

"You didn't know that, did you?" Io says curiously. "Funny."

Aurelia ignores her. "Question two: You're both bladed. The Chief killed your brothers and sisters. Why follow him still?"

"Our brothers and sisters were weak," Io answers. The bluntness of her answer gives Aurelia a chill.

"They were ambushed," she counters. "During a summer feast, in their own home."

"They could have escaped, as I did," Io says. She sees the shock on Aurelia's face and shakes her head. "So forgetful, little one. I was _there_ that night? Our elders were too busy squabbling over who among them would be the next Master, and that useless new Secretary did nothing to help. When Cinelgen came, he _freed_ us."

"He would have killed you."

"But he didn't. I survived and found him. He granted me a place among his people."

"That is better than what the Hylians have given us, no?" Cadma adds. He adjusts his sitting position against the hard wall, wincing. "At least a sleeping mat would have been nice."

How could they both be so indifferent to what happened? Didn't they care at all? It was like their people meant nothing to them. The survival was all that mattered...

"Didn't you have family?" Aurelia asks breathlessly. She cannot hide her disbelief now.

Io groans. "What, like your sister? Are you still upset about that? It's been three years."

"She was my _sister_ ," Aurelia says, her voice wavering. She places a hand on the ground to steady herself, suddenly overwhelmed. She feels her hands shaking again, her skin growing hot, clammy. She closes her eye. Where was this feeling coming from?

"Maybe I had family, maybe I didn't," Io continues on, not seeming to notice. "You can't tell me what should concern me. What have you ever done for your people?"

Aurelia opens her eye. "I'm trying to keep them alive,"

" _Now_ , you are. But what about before? When he killed your sister? When he took you to Hyrule Castle? When the Hero was within our grasp when you had a Guardian, a _living Guardian_ , under your watch? What did you do? It was only when that thing plucked out your eye that you finally decided to act! Only when Cinelgen's plans no longer benefitted _you_. Cassiah's death meant nothing to you, only the pity it would gain you."

"How dare you-"

Io rushes to the cell bars, grasping one in each hand. The metal rattles as she says, "How dare _you_ try to lead us! _You_ killed Cinna, just as he killed our elders, and the Hero killed Kohga. You're no better, and yet you come down here to lecture _us_. The only ones truly loyal to our people."

In a hurry, Aurelia stands. She is shaking uncontrollably now, like bugs are under her skin, scratching at her. She backs away to the far cell and leans against the cold bars.

"What's wrong, little one?" Io coos. "Something I said."

"Enough," Aurelia orders. "No more. Nothing you can say matters."

"Oh, I don't know about that," Io says with a smile. She nods towards Cadma. He lets out a long sigh and begins to stretch his arms. After a brief pause, he moves towards Cejin and grabs him firmly by the neck. Cejin kicks and sputters but is not strong enough to fight him off.

"What are you doing-!?" Aurelia cries, rushing back towards their cell. As she nears, Io reaches out and grabs her by the collar, holding her in close.

"Let us make a deal. I'm feeling quite generous just as you," she sneers. "Let us out. Let us free. Into the wilderness. You can hunt us down, or you can never hear from us again. And we will spare him."

Aurelia wrenches free, panting from the shock. "N-no," she manages. "You will not go, you cannot."

"And neither will he!" Io says gleefully. At the back of the cell, Cadma has tightened his grip. Aurelia desperately fumbles through the keys Hudson gave her. Cejin only had seconds before he would-

"The world has moved on, little one," Io continues. " _We_ have moved on. Who is benefiting from what you are doing to your own people? Them? The Hylians? Cinna?"

"Let us go, girl," Cadma calls out as Cejin's kicks and whimpers begin to slow. "He's nearly out!"

"Fine! Fine!" Aurelia shouts. She finds the right key and drives it into the cell lock and turns. At once, Cadma drops Cejin to the floor. The door swings ever so slightly open.

"Get out of this place," Aurelia orders. "I never want to see either of you again."

Io saunters from the cell. "Gladly. One last thing; our weapons?"

"No," Aurelia says immediately, stepping in front of the storage cabinet where their sickles are placed.

Io frowns, and approaches Aurelia slowly, looming taller and taller. "What a shame, little one. But if you say so, you _are_ the one in charge. Though, one last parting sentiment."

Aurelia does her best not to cower. "And what is that?"

"Begone, enemies of my Master."

Quick and deadly, Io grabs Aurelia's shoulders and slams her head against the wall.

* * *

Cinna was his name. He was a wild young thing, but full of hate. The perfect recruit.

I was just a child when he came to us. He was a Gerudo man born only a few miles from our valley whose mother kept him secret. She named him for his copper hair and dark skin, and the bitterness of the spice of which he reminded her. There were Gerudo women among us who denied he was real. Were he born in Gerudo Town, he would be King!

He flourished with us. Gerudo strength and speed were difficult to match. He was _bladed_ within a year. For a while, he could do no wrong, at least, not in my eyes. He would visit our home, play cards with my elder sister and help my mother cook. When he saw me, he would ruffle my hair and ask how my training was going. I wanted to grow as tall and strong as him, and I was sad that I never would. But he told me not to fear. _You are Yiga-born, little golden one, and that fantastic magic of your people is in your blood. You'll have that over me._

But he was not perfect, I know now. He had a temper. One terrible night he killed one of our elders in a rage; our Secretary, who had served on our council for over forty years. Over some petty disagreement. Over nothing.

I remember him coming to our hut in a panic, begging my elder sister to flee with him. They argued, they _screamed_ at each other, and in the end, she kicked him out into the dust. And then he was gone.

For two years, the elders decided he was dead until a recruit came to us claiming to have seen him in Akkala. The Gerudo had burnt down a village, but was wounded in the fighting and was near death. When asked under what circumstances the recruit had seen him, he said, _it was my village he burnt down_. He assured us the Gerudo was dead.

We had never had an Akkalan before. We believed him. I believed him.

And then, during a feast to celebrate the end of summer and mourn the death of our Master Kohga, the Gerudo returned, but he did not return alone. Two years was a long time, enough to command a small force of strays and outsiders like the ones the Yiga once took on. But they were his now, and by the end of the night, our elders were dead, our people massacred, and our new leader risen; Cinelgen of Gerudo Desert, Chief of the Yiga.

* * *

Aurelia awakens to darkness. The room is silent, but beneath her, she can feel a rumbling. It is steady and constant, rolling, like thunder. The ground is strangely warm. The air smells of rot and blood.

Something is not right. It should not be like this. She startles.

"Cejin!" she cries out, remembering all at once. Stumbling across the floor of the cells she crawls to where Cejin must be and finds him weak, but alive.

"I'm sorry," he says. "I couldn't...I couldn't stop them."

"It's okay," Aurelia says. "I need you to stay here, just a little bit longer. Where did they go?"

Cejin smiles through bloodied teeth. "Where would they go but up, Master?"

Aurelia turns and sees that the doors of the cells are open, as is the now empty storage cabinet. _Fuck_.

She is on her feet in a second, dizzily racing out of the cells and up the inner stairwell. She does not stop, running in a clean, unbroken sprint up to levels of the Yiga cells.

"Rin!" she screams into the hallway. "Rin, come quick!"

Several Yiga poke their heads out of their cells, muttering. Their faces turn to fear when they see her. Rin emerges from them, his weapon on his shoulder.

"What's happening?"

"The Yiga, in the cells. They've escaped."

His hand goes to the hilt of his windcleaver.

Aurelia shakes her head, but Rin gives her a stern look. "Be realistic," he whispers.

Aurelia looks past him and sees her people in the hallway. All eyes are on her.

"Alright," she says, and hurries into her room to find her sickle.

They run in single file up the stairs; the rest of the Yiga have been ordered to remain below. This is a situation that must be contained. As they run past the kitchens, they hear shouting. _All the oil!_ She hears a woman crying. _Those bastards took all the oil_.

Aurelia shoots Rin a glance over her shoulder, wide-eyed.

"Go!" he says. "No dawdling. We finish this before it begins."

Higher and higher they climb, up through all four hundred steps. Aurelia tells Rin to go on ahead, to use his powers but he refuses. His duty is at her side; and in any case, teleporting upstairs is actually quite difficult, and the one time he tried he injured his ankle. He tells this story through huffs and puffs as they leap, one step, two, three at a time towards the surface until finally - they break out into the light and stumble into the Eastern Battlements.

There is a throng of Hylians and other residents of the Citadel on the mountain top, but the escaped Yiga still wear their garb. All they have to do is follow the signs of commotion. Already those around them are beginning to mutter and startle; two armed Yiga must have just come through, and now two more hot on their trail.

But there is only one place they will go: the outer stairwell, and the one that will lead down to the Bridge of Akkala. Aurelia sprints towards the stairwell, and there she spots them! Io and Cadma, each with a small barrel of oil underarm, running towards the landing that leads down to the outer stairwell. Whatever they plan it can only mean one thing: fire.

"Rin!" she shouts. "Now!"

The footsoldier spots the fleeing Yiga, and in an instant, he has disappeared in a flash of red light.

One moment later, he lands in front of them, hands still clasped by his chest. "And where are you headed?"

Cadma calmly puts down the barrel, but the Io stands firm.

"Come with us, brother," she says behind her mask, now worn. "Come be free with us. Why do you wish to be trapped here? In this terrible place?"

Rin says nothing. He draws his sword and waits.

Aurelia approaches the two Yiga from behind, hesitant to draw her sickle. Io turns and spots her, a cruel smile on her face. She places down her barrel and draws her own sickle. Aurelia takes stock, readying herself. There is a wall beside the landing, only a head taller than Io. On the landing above the wall, Aurelia sees people near the edge, and they begin to flee when they see the unfolding confrontation.

"I am free," Rin tells the Yiga. "Free to follow who I choose, not a usurper who killed my people."

"And free to fight, then," Cadma says hungrily. He is rolling his shoulders, preparing.

"We don't want to fight you," Aurelia says, but Io shakes her head.

"Your man has drawn his weapon. The fight has already begun."

Aurelia lifts her sickle from her belt, raises it, catches a split second of her reflection. _I can, I can, I can_. She looks at Io. "Then let's go."

Io is on her in an instant, blows coming so thick and fast that Aurelia can barely keep up. Their sickles ring and chime as Aurelia is pushed back, one step, two, three. She catches a glance at Rin, who is not doing much better, toe to toe with Cadma.

Io catches the curve of her blade and the wrestle for control, each tugging with all their might to disarm the other. Aurelia kicks blindly, managing to catch Io in the shin. She goes down with a roar, but retaliates, delivering a full-fisted blow to Aurelia's stomach. The pain dizzies her, and Aurelia loses grip on her sickle. It is sent flying, clattering off the high wall beside them. She ducks, just in time to dodge the clean slice from Io, but the pain has slowed her. The next slice catches her arm, leaving a deep gash along her shoulder. Aurelia screams, falls backwards, her left hand clutched over the wound.

The pain, she has never felt pain like this since...since her eye. She begins to panic.

"Silly little blonde girl likes to play with sickles, hm" Io taunts. "Let's take that other eye."

 _PANG._ The world goes white with a blast of pain to Aurelia's left temple as Io's boot knocks her down. She lands hard in the stone. For a moment her worst fear has come; she cannot see. She fights to pull herself up, scraping at the stone and clawing at the gravel. She hears Rin call her name. She hears footsteps, hears the cries of the people around them. She hears a voice, so familiar, so loved and hated, stand guard between her and her attacker.

"It's alright, Aury. I'm here."

And then she opens her eye and sees.

Inglis of Akkala, royal sword raised, a large shield in hand. Glinting in his Knight armour. Ever by her side.

From the high wall above, she sees Link too, jumping down to join the fight and aide Rin. He carries nothing more than shortbow but holds it raised like a blade all the same.

"No," Aurelia croaks. "This isn't...this isn't your fight."

But Aurelia cannot stop them. Io raises her sickle towards Inglis. "I've never had the joy of killing a Royal Knight," she says. "What a day this is."

"Inglis! Get back!" Link shouts. "You're not trained against Yiga!"

Inglis raises his sword, and he and the Io begin to spar. Aurelia watches in horror as the two groups fight; Inglis against the Io, and Link and Rin against Cadma. She spies her sickle a few feet away from her and crawls towards it. The clang of metal rings out around her as she drags herself along the ground, managing to reach the sickle before anyone has looked her way.

She scans the landing, trying to find the best place to help. On the far side, Cadma is proving surprisingly agile, spinning back and forth and deflecting blows from both Link and Rin. When Link steps back to draw his bow, the Yiga man suddenly _disappears_.

Link freezes but Rin stands ready. "Mage!" he shouts, just in time for the Yiga man to reappear behind Link. Without pause, he kicks Link's legs out from underneath him and yanks a handful of arrows from his quiver, before tearing the bow from Link's hands. Rin moves to retaliate, but the Yiga disappears once again.

A loud groan pulls her attention away, and Aurelia looks just in time to see Io punch Inglis across the face, knocking him backwards. And then, with a single clean swing of her sickle, she slices him across the ribs and down towards his belly. Inglis clutches his torso, and stumbles, but does not fall.

"No! Inglis!" Aurelia cries. The Yiga woman raises her sickle a final time, and Aurelia's feet move before she can think and suddenly she is standing between them, pushing Inglis aside. She will not let this happen. She will not let fall for her. She will...she will...

There is a flash of red light. The slice of the blade comes, but all it meets is air.

Aurelia disappears.

It feels as though the air bends around her and when she opens her eye she is _behind_ Io.

There is no to think on what she has done. With fury, she spins, delivers a concise swing of her sickle across the assailant's back. When Io falls to her knees, she swings again, this time across the back of her neck. The woman splutters, never having seen the blows, and lands face down in the stone.

There is a sudden cheer, and Aurelia looks over her shoulder to see Rin with his sickle held high. He is elated, his pupil finally achieving her goal.

Beside him, Link has gone white. In unison, he and Aurelia rush to Inglis' side. Link cradles the Akkalan in his arms, though around him already is a pool of blood.

Aurelia finds herself in tears, fussing needlessly over Inglis as Link lifts him from the ground.

"It's okay, I've got him," he says. "It's a bad one, but he'll survive. Go get your escapee."

Aurelia nods and runs back over to Rin.

"He said he wasn't a mage," she says.

Rin scowls. "He lied. And now he could be anywhere."

Aurelia looks down the mountainside and does not have to search long. Out by the Bridge of Akkala is a lone Yiga figure, the barrel of oil in arm. He has split it open and is racing across the bridge, his stolen bow and arrow in the other hand.

Cadma's plan materialises for Aurelia in an instant. The arrows he stole were fire arrows. The bridge is doomed. She runs forward but is held back by a strong hand on her shoulder.

It is Rin. "No!" he says. "You can't risk it, you're our leader. I will go."

"You're the only other mage if you go-"

"You'll be fine. Didn't you see what you just did!?"

"No, no this is my fault I have to go," she brushes him off, but it is too late.

When they look back, the bridge is already ablaze, and the Yiga is nowhere to be seen. Aurelia wants to propel herself down to it, to try and catch him. But she looks up at the watching crowd and sees the trail of blood left as Link hurries Inglis away, and knows that nothing she can do will change what has happened.

She looks into the blaze, her chest a mix of triumph and tragedy.

Just as the bridge begins to collapse, the first snow of winter starts to fall.

* * *

It isn't clear what fills the intervening hours, but at sunset Aurelia finds herself sitting in the Yiga's common room, alone, and numb.

It is too much. She can't...she can't keep a hold of it all. First the dream, then Cejin, then the Yiga and then…

She looks down at her hands, traces the scars. _I was there, and then I wasn't._ Even now, all she wants is to forget; forget everything that has led her here and has delivered her into this strange and dangerous life.

A sweet and gentle voice pulls her from her stupor. "I heard what happened."

And then Hana is sitting by her side, a hand on her shoulder. Aurelia gives her a lethargic look. "Is Inglis-?" she begins to ask.

"Rin tells me he's okay. The Hero is with him in his cell. Rin says you saved his life."

First, what feels like the first time in years, Aurelia laughs. "I did, and I don't even know _how_."

"Rin says it was magic, our magic! _Teleportation_ , he called it."

"Rin says, Rin says," Aurelia teases. "Have you got a crush on him?"

Hana shakes her head and laughs, sticking out her tongue. "Ugh, no. He's too old for me. And besides…"

She bows her head, the sudden lightness in her gone. "Cejin?" Aurelia asks, and Hana nods.

"What did he do?"

At that, Hana rolls her eyes. She heaves a sigh. "It was my fault. Mara was distracted with Sahn's baby and I...I kissed his cheek. I don't know why I did it! I was...I was actually thinking of you. You're so bold, Aury. Your boyfriend is Hylian-"

Aurelia gives a start. "He's not my boyfriend-"

"I just wanted Cejin to know I care about him!" Hana blurts out. "And then he...he returned the gesture. We forgot where we were. And then suddenly there was all this shouting, and he was on the ground and those _Hylians_ …" her voice trails off.

"I'm sorry you went through that, Hana," Aurelia says. She takes Hana's hand. "I'm sorry I brought you here."

A silence falls between them. They hold hands, comforted by each other's presence until Aurelia says,

"I miss Cassiah... I miss her so much."

Hana sniffles. "Me too."

"She would never have let any of this happen. She would have been a good leader."

" _You_ are a good leader, Aury."

"Am I? Be honest."

"I mean...I don't know anything about it. But…" Hana gives her hand a squeeze. "Whenever something happens, you're always the first person there. And today, you showed all the Hylians what you can do. I wish I could have seen it, the way Rin talks about it. Our people trust you. Isn't that enough?"

Aurelia regards her little sister; her round face and her charming freckles. She has Cassiah's eyes; deep brown, infinitely earnest. "From you, it is," Aurelia smiles.

"Good. Then let's not talk about it anymore," Hana declares. She stands and searches the room for something. Finally, she the _yema chimes_ and the paint that have been stashed in the corner, and puts them on the table. "Let's just paint. Mother said the chimes ward off bad luck."

"We're going to need thousands then!" comes a voice from the door.

The sisters look up, and both smile. Rin is there, leaning against the frame. He takes a seat beside Aurelia, grabs a charm and a paintbrush and holds them ready. He leans over, and whispers, "By the way, you were amazing out there." For an absurd moment, Aurelia cannot help but blush.

A few minutes later, a pair of youngers peer in the door, stealing a glance in the common room when they have been ordered to stay in their cells. Aurelia recognises them; Djalu, a boy of only fifteen, and Lileth, a Hylian-born Yiga. She invites them in, and their eyes light up when they see the paint. They hurry back to the rooms to fetch the other children, and within minutes, no less than six youngsters have gathered to help with the painting. They goad Aurelia and Rin to talk about their powers, obviously having heard somewhere in the grapevine of what occurred at the Citadel summit. A little while later, Mara enters with a huge pot of hot soup and calls the rest of the Yiga down. In a steady stream, they come, some taking food and others paint, and soon the room is in a raucous with chatter and laughter, as bowl after bowl is eaten and charm after charm is painted. In a lull in the conversation, Sahn announces that her and Ocre's daughter is now a season old, and can be given a name. In honour of the new age, they have decided to name her Aruni, meaning dawn.

Side by side with Rin and her sister Hana, Aurelia spends the evening painting and eating and talking, the world of the Hylians far away and high above. And finally, mercifully, just for one night, she is able to forget.


	8. The Rise and Fall of the Yiga, Ch 3

Sometimes, I want to ask him why. Not why he'd done what he had, but why I had followed? What was it about him that made me blind?

I think I know now. You see, the Yiga have a philosophy: _turn inwards._ I was taught as a girl. In the face of harshest winds, long winters, and isolation turn inwards. Turn to each other, find your strength together, and you will always survive.

I thought that turning towards Cinelgen was what this meant. Turn towards the body with the greatest magnetism. He commanded so many, stood so tall, spoke so clearly - it was easy to follow. I went with him to the empty Hyrule Castle, I did his bidding, guarded his prisoners. I watched my people enslaved thinking we had been made strong. Then one morning I woke without an eye, and I woke in full.

And so I fled, with as many as I could take. I reasoned that I would not condemn him, only refuse to accept him. I was too afraid to challenge him alone. I told myself justice would catch him.

And nearly, she did.

I heard it was a reckoning the day the Princess of Hyrule came to reclaim her castle. I heard that she had all of Hyrule at her back, and the Hero too. But I knew Cinna. He was not one to die at the beginning of another's story.

He escaped along the Hylia River, taking a dozen stragglers with him. Some of them were Yiga. I suppose I vowed then to never flee again. I tracked him down. I rose so that my people could stand and stand united. They defied him. They turned to _me_ , for better or for worse.

I took on the mantle that I have not for power or legacy. I did it to save my people. If the world forgives me for what I have done, or have tried to do, then so be it. Forgiveness is not a compromise. It is either given, or it isn't. I am done holding my breath.

* * *

 **And Rise**

Air made of ice. Half-frozen stone below. On the wind, a song.

Hands clasped at her chest, papers with names like prayers between her fingers, one-eye closed and the other long gone. Aurelia breathes. A third eye sees the spaces within herself; the heart, the lung, the vessels of blood, the bone. Now changed. Forever changed, by a power that was not there only a few days before. She extends this awareness to another; her counterpart and guide. She sees him open his mouth before he speaks.

"The centre of you is not the centre you feel," Rin recites, with the candour of a phrase repeated to many Yiga across many years. "It is changeable. Move it, when you are ready, to wherever you need, and then... _pull_." He says the last word like a sigh.

Aurelia tests this. She feels her surroundings. She feels the summit of Akkala Citadel where they stand, in an empty courtyard with the looming Akkala Tower overhead. Beneath her feet is snow, and beneath that is ancient stone. Above her is a snow-filled sky, one that has calmed just long enough for practice. She sees her _centre_ and imagines it as a single bead within a single point of space. She pictures it twenty feet overhead, tethered to her via an imperceptible string like a single tendon, pulled tight, ready to give. At once, Aurelia lets this separation pull her from the space she is in and deliver her, quicker than the blink of an eye, high into the air.

It is the falling that she hates. Her stomach lurches, and she cries out. She flails, paddles air hopelessly as Rin calls, "Two feet! Two feet!"

Aurelia focuses just in time and lands unsteadily. Her knees buckle, but she rolls expertly, her shoulder hitting the ground in a clean forward motion. She tumbles, smacks her feet onto the stone and stands up, a little dizzy, but smiling wide.

Behind them, a group of spectators cheer; a joyous Mara, and an ecstatic pack of four youngsters. They whoop and toss their arms into the air, while a subdued Cejin and his stoic cousin Khea look on. Aurelia gives them an acknowledging nod.

"Faster this time. You're a natural," Rin commends, looking the prideful teacher.

Aurelia shrugs. "Still getting used to it. Could be faster."

"We're not here to rush. One more time, or?"

"No, it's getting late," Aurelia says, scanning the horizon. The sun is up. They are almost out of time. Pulling her coat tighter, she heads back towards the group.

Mara is sat on a large block of rubble that serves as a bench, watching the four youngsters play in the snow. Tomoe and Alinti are her own children, one a boy and one a toddler. Jarrah and Yinna are the others, brother and sister too, but without a mother or indeed any parents. Mara has taken them in, and from what Aurelia has seen, never rests to care for them.

As she watches, Mara holds some finished _yema_ chimes that the Yiga painted a few days earlier. They are strung along some twine, of which she and Khea each hold one end. During the walk to the summit, Mara told Aurelia that she wanted the children to hear the chimes again; the youngest, Alinti, had never even heard them at all, being only a babe when they had fled Karusa. The chimes clink and clack in the snowy wind, and the sound brings Aurelia an inner peace just to hear it.

Cassiah had once hung them across Aurelia's tiny bedroom window to help her sleep. _Doesn't it sound like horse's hoofs?_ She had asked. _Or the ways the stars twinkle?_

Cejin sits next to Mara, having apparently volunteered to her watch the youngsters. Aurelia feels she knows the truth, however; after his beating by those atrocious Hylians, and his imprisonment in the cells, CJ has been bedridden and cooped up. The boy is breathing deep. He simply wants some fresh air.

Mara grins as Aurelia approaches. "Here's our golden girl," she says. "I can't believe you manage to land every time, I think I would just collapse!"

"Can you fly?" asks Tomoe. He holds a ball of snow in his little gloved hands and is watching it melt when he asks.

"I actually don't know…" Aurelia chuckles. She looks to Rin for an answer; the footsoldier has knelt down next to the other three children and is helping them build a snow castle.

"Well...of course!" Rin says after some thought, and Tomoe clasps his hands to his mouth, unceremoniously smushing a handful of snow to his face. He coughs and bats the snow away. "Really?"

"Beats riding a horse."

Aurelia knuckles Rin's shoulder, murmuring _don't tease them,_ but Tomoe is nodding silently, soaking up the knowledge like it were ancient wisdom. The chimes rattle, and the wind picks up. One minute longer and then they _must_ head inside.

With a gloved hand, Rin pats down the now formed snow castle, and the children coo in response. He takes his Yiga mask - white ceramic painted with the red Yiga eye - and places it beside the Castle. "There, now it's ours," he tells the children.

All too soon, the minute is over.

Aurelia turns to Mara, admiring the _yema_ chimes with a small frown. "I'm sorry, Mara, but we must go inside. I wish I could give them more time but-"

"I understand," Mara says. Her mouth twists, slight resentment, but she says nothing. She stands, brushes snow off of her coat, and gently begins encouraging the children away from their snowcastle. They whine and complain, but agree to head inside after Tomoe suggests they smash the castle first.

Aurelia makes the mistake of looking west, and down the cliffs, where she sees the ruins of the Bridge of Akkala. It is little more than jutting splinters of charred wood, where an escaped Yiga prisoner set it alight.

A Yiga prisoner that _Aurelia_ released. The thought sends a powerful jolt of guilt through her. The morning after the escape, Link found her and told of what had transpired between the Hylians that night - horrible words, vitriol as hot as lava, and calls upon calls for the Yiga to be evicted. In response, Aurelia confined the Yiga to their sleeping cells and the makeshift common room. They would not leave. That would be giving in. It would be failure.

Soon the anger would pass, and until then her people would be safe even if they were not free. They spent their days painting yema charms, telling stories, keeping each other strong. But...children cannot exist without air and light, and so a risk had to be taken to bring them to the summit this morning.

The youngsters grumble as Mara gathers them to head inside, but they go anyway. Cejin and Khea follow in silence. When they pass, Aurelia pulls them aside.

"How are you holding up?" she asks. Seeing Cejin up close brings her a small shock. His bruises are a deep purple, and weeping strange coloured pus. He is sweating too, his eyes heavy and malaised. The cousins share a tense look.

"I'm fine," Cejin answers. "Recovering slow."

Aurelia frowns, unsatisfied.

" _Cold_ ," Cejin amends. " _Better_ if you let me carry out that plan I mentioned-"

"No, no more talk of this," Aurelia cuts him off. She pushes the boys in the direction of the Citadel entrance. "I will not hear it."

Cejin groans. "C'mon, Master Aurelia. They deserve it."

"It wouldn't hurt them," Khea agrees.

"Just make their beds _really_ itchy. For like, a day! How can you say no after-"

"No, enough!" Aurelia pushes harder, urging the boys in through the huge, heavy stone doors at the Citadel's main entrance. Cejin will not go, repeating how simple it would be, how they deserved revenge. Khea, mercifully, begins tugging him inside, but Cejin adds a final,

"They're scum, and you know it. They bring it on themselves."

His words trouble Aurelia. More hate, not that Cejin has no reason. He has every reason. But more fighting, more resentment - all it does is drive the wedge further between her people and the Hylians. Can't he see that? Can't anyone?

"What's his plan? Bed bugs?" Rin asks with a chuckle, appearing at Aurelia's side.

Aurelia buries her head in her hands. "Yes, and specifically placed in that Hylian Otho's bed. Don't ask him how they know where to find some because I do not want to know."

Rin rolls his eyes, thick arms crossed about his chest. _Kids_ , he murmurs. Aurelia laughs, letting her exasperation go. They're just kids; Rin is right.

Thankfully, Rin is here at all. Of those injured in the fighting, Aurelia is grateful that Rin is not among them. It was distressing enough - Cejin beaten, and then having to fight the escaped Yiga - who were of her own kind and blood - and then with Inglis joining and then being cut down so ferociously...discovering her powers...the burning bridge…

 _Inglis_. Remembering him at all brings pain. Link had reported he was alive, recovering. Aurelia has not gone to see him and will not, she has decided until this mess is over. She needed to uncover the truth behind her strange dreams, her new powers. The Hylians would forgive her, things would go back to normal. It was her responsibility now, her duty-

"There's something I've been meaning to tell you, Master Aurelia."

-and if she couldn't fix it then who? _Cinna is dead_. So is Kohga. So is Cassiah, and-

"Aurelia?"

She blinks, trying not to lose her train of thought.

"Aurelia, are you okay?"

Rin lowers his head to her eye level, regarding her with concern.

"Of...of course," Aurelia answers, her voice gaining a flimsy resolve. "What were you saying?"

"We can talk later. You look tired."

Aurelia starts. He pities her. "No. No, not yet," she protests. "I need to show you something," She tugs on Rin's sleeve, leading him towards the broken watchtower that surrounds Akkala Tower.

"Is it another coat?" Rin asks dryly, receiving no answer.

They climb over the rubble into the broken watchtower, a crumbling building that surrounds Akkala Tower itself. Aurelia wordlessly begins searching the metal; Inglis could not see the cut, but perhaps Rin may be able to. He was Yiga, a mage, and that was what they now had in common.

There it is. Clear as it was the day before. Careful not to touch the space where the metal ends and the cut begins, Aurelia points it out to Rin.

"Can you see that?"

Rin narrows his eyes, leans in. It is not clear if he does indeed see anything until he reaches a hand up to the metal mesh of the tower. Aurelia slaps it.

" _Don't touch it!_ "

Rin startles but, after a moment's pause, draws his hand away.

"Tell me you can see it," Aurelia breathes. "Please."

Looking between the cut and Aurelia, Rin finally says. "What _is_ it?"

She is so relieved she clasps her hands together as if in prayer.

"You see it!?" she asks, half wild.

"That weird shiny thing?"

"Yes!"

"I see it. Why can't I touch it? Did _you_ touch it?" His eyes go wide, and he whispers. " _You touched it_."

It all comes out at once then. Aurelia recounts seeing the cut, and then her recollections that she thought were just dreams, until realising that perhaps the visions she was given were true. She tells of the woman named Maya, and the way she looked Sheikah but was really Yiga, or was once Sheikah and became Yiga, and must have been amongst the first of their people. She tells of the journey Maya, and her brother were making to Akkala Citadel, and the old researcher they have kidnapped. She tells it like the last story she will ever tell, and by its end, Rin has fallen into a deep and pensive silence.

"Is this common? Are there more of these?" she asks him at the end of it.

The Yiga footsoldier appears deeply troubled, his eyes darting back and forth between the cut and the tower as he tries to correlate what he might know with what Aurelia has told him. "I don't know," he concludes, a little exasperated. "I...I was only a footsoldier."

"And I only an acolyte...but we both see it. It must mean something. It must!"

Rin's expression changes; his whole demeanour changes. "Magic hole in the world or not, visions or not - Aury..." He fumbles with a button, adjusts his ponytail.

"Out with it."

 _And don't call me Aury_ , she wants to add, but Rin clutches her by the shoulders and gently draws her a corner of the broken watchtower. Leaning down, so they are eye to eye, he says in a whisper, "I overheard some of the Hylians talking. They say we're snowed in. That there's some harvest shipment full of food that can't reach us. That we're _trapped_."

Aurelia stares at him blankly. "Trapped…?" she repeats. "How can we be trapped?"

"There's a way to get across the valley but the land is too steep, and with the snow, they can't take carriages. If we're going to go, we need to go now, on foot, before the people here start going stir crazy and looking for sacrifices."

"And you're saying they will turn on us?"

"Aury, they already have. You confined us to our cells for our safety, why else?"

"We can't leave, Rin. This is our home now. I made an agreement with the Queen, we would lay down our blades and in return-"

"In return what? The Hylians would just _accept_ us? And...and, lay down our blades!? We got into a fight just four days ago. Ser Inglis nearly died, and the _Hero of Hyrule_ had to intervene!"

"You think I wanted to fight those prisoners?"

" _You_ released them."

"They would have killed Cejin!"

"And then what is our pact? Why should the Hylians protect us if we still fight amongst ourselves?"

"I am not the one fighting. It's people like you - the bladed ones who can't let go of the past! The way those prisoners acted, the Hylians have every right to fear them. Fear _us_. Bladed Yiga once killedpeople, _normal_ people."

Aurelia stops short of saying the very next thing on her tongue. That Rin, as a bladed Yiga, might be guilty of such a thing. But it is too late.

" _People like you_ ," Rin scoffs. "I never killed anyone. But thank you for asking."

Aurelia feels her chest tighten. Rin is like her. An innate sense of good, torn asunder by the brutality of their upbringing. They need to support each other through this.

Rin shrugs and continues on. "Well, I met the Hero _once_. Had my ass...my _everything_ handed to me. I only barely got away."

Aurelia stifles a laugh. "Serves you right," she sighs. "Though I suppose he was just a kid back then."

"Was, and is," Rin says. "Just like us." Wordlessly, he unclips the white clay mask painted with a Yiga eye that was hooked to his belt and looks upon it.

"You really think we should not leave?" he asks.

"Where could be safer than here? I know it isn't easy, I know we want to blame others. But some of our kind...many of our kind... _did_ kill people. We're lucky to be allowed here. If we're to survive, the old ways must be done away with."

"And who decides what remains? The Hylians?"

When she does not answer, Rin takes the painted mask and places it in her hands.

"I still trust you," he says, though in his eyes she sees tears. With that, he turns to leave as Aurelia looks on, dazed and unable to find the words to respond. Her thoughts swim around in her mind, a lurching pool of mud and water.

Rin climbs out the window of the broken tower and gives her a moment to follow. Aurelia hesitates, and then he is gone. She feels a pit in her stomach. How could they have fought like this? She shouldn't have been so hard on him, shouldn't have spoken, shouldn't have...

Aurelia looks back to the cut in the metal. A distraction. She feels the well of power within her — Yiga magicks. Or...Sheikah? Was it Maya that gave her this power? But how?

There was still much to learn. Aurelia reaches out, but stops. The chill outside is too strong. If she falls unconscious here, as she has the previous two times, she could freeze.

'Rin?' she calls out. There is no answer. 'Rin?'

The wind outside howls. The dream will have to wait.

* * *

One step, two, three. Aurelia ambles down the inner stairwell of Akkala Citadel, a hand on the thick and roughly-set bricks of its walls. Few pass her on her descent; those that do pass with scowls.

Strangely, she no longer has the energy to feel shame. Let them look. Let them frown. All they will see is a one-eyed woman, now a dangerous one too. Aurelia keeps a hand on her scythe and passes two Hylian women and a Zora standing on the landing that leads into the Hylian sleeping cells. She catches them eyeing her weapon fearfully and scurrying away.

Keeping the scythe so blatantly is her rebellion; her vindication. Even if she knows it is not helping. And everything would have been fine had no one stopped to talk to her.

He finds her as she is passing the second level down, near the kitchens. He is skinny, barely a man, with an oily face and a pimpled forehead.

"Excuse me, ma'am?" he says weakly as she passes. Aurelia recognises him at once. She last saw him kicking an already beaten down Cejin, and then feebly telling his friend Otho to back off, like a hypocrite. Aurelia tightens her grip on the hilt of her scythe.

"What do you want?"

It is as if the skinny Hylian has not expected her to respond. He stares, glassy-eyed. Words tumble from his mouth, jittery and staccato. Aurelia considers merely leaving him to this state of madness when finally he manages,

"I wanted to say sorry!" he cries. "Your friend, I didn't know what I was doing, I didn't know. Otho, he has such a temper. He's sorry too. I know he isn't here but-"

Aurelia groans, cutting off the stream of apologies. She brings a hand to her face, "Are you kidding me right now?"

"I-I...I'm sorry-"

"I don't want to hear about it. I don't want an apology."

The skinny Hylian seems to fold inwardly. "But...that's what I'm doing…"

"Well, don't. It won't change what you did. Certainly won't heal CJ's bruises."

"I know, I know. I'm sorry-I mean- _shit_. Nevermind. I wasn't here. Have a nice day, ma'am."

There is no point giving him any more time to embarrass himself. She turns away without much more than a sigh and begins on down the stairs.

"I wanted to tell you - I saw what you did. I wanted to tell you it was cool!" the Hylian calls after her. He sounds genuine, admiring even. Aurelia makes the mistake of looking back.

They lock eyes, and all the admiration she heard in the Hylian's voice is entirely absent from his face. He gives her a disgusted, venomous look. "But I thought you'd at least accept my apology. I'm trying to make amends, the least you can do is get over yourself. Otho was right about you."

And then, just like that, he disappears from the hallway, his words and actions consequence free.

Aurelia stands dumbfounded, looking where he stood. Had she treated him poorly? Was she wrong to still be angry? Why couldn't she be nice? It would make the Hylians happy. It would make things easier. Aurelia suddenly remembers the mark Rin had given her. She unclips it and looks upon the painted red eye. It brings her a sudden burst of rebelliousness. The world sees her as a vagrant? Then that's what she'll be.

Securing the mask to her belt, Aurelia races down the stairwell, counting. Two, four, six at a time until she reaches not her own level, but one forbidden.

The doors of the library stand before her, heavy and foreboding. Determined, Aurelia pushes them both open, one with each hand, and marches into that tremendous and hidden expanse from which Hudson has banned her people.

Only to find an empty, rotting husk of a room.

There are hardly any books, and those that remain are falling apart. Many of the shelves are collapsed. There are holes in the wooden flooring, wallpaper peeling from the walls. The wooden furniture is rotting, and on the far side, she sees that one of the walls has partially collapsed, and rock and earth from the mountainside have breached inwards. There is barely any light.

The Library is empty; worse than that. It is rotting, a corpse of a kingdom long past. Every step she takes leaves a harrowing echo. This is an unquiet place.

 _What happened here?_ This library is not like the other empty rooms in the Citadel. There the air is stale, as though frozen in time. Here...here is some aftermath. Aurelia wraps her arms around herself and shivers.

There is a creek behind her as the library doors open. She spins, startled, draws her sickle.

But it is only Hudson, carrying books and ledgers underarm, and wearing a snow-dusted coat. Aurelia puts away her sickle so fast she nearly cuts herself. They lock eyes. For a moment, none speak. Aurelia is ready to apologise but does not. Let him hate her for it.

"Miss Aurelia, howdy," Hudson smiles. He walks into the library as though she isn't there and she isn't trespassing.

"You feel it too?" he asks. "The _aura_ of this place. Frankly, it makes my skin crawl, but well, no one disturbs me in my work so I can't complain." He laughs three long whoozy chuckles that turn into coughs when Aurelia does not join in. She glares at him, guarded and tense. Something will turn, she knows it.

"I can't say I'm not disappointed," Hudson continues. He drops the pile of papers he is carrying onto his desk and looks around the decaying library, his eyes shimmering and sad from beneath his thick fringe of mop-like hair. "When I decided to come here, I thought this would be the construction project of a lifetime. But it's just an old pile of rubble that we're trying to live in, and you know, maybe we should have just let it go." He looks at her again and smiles. "What do you think?"

Still tense, Aurelia does not know what to say. She takes her own look around the room once more and notices the empty bookshelves again. "Surely there was more in here?"

"All of it destroyed. The rest, sent to the Queen after we moved in here," Hudson explains. He shrugs. "I'm not a historian you see and, well, she's got that royal academy and now, well, what's it called? _The Hyrulean Academy of Magic,_ though in her letters she just calls it 'Magestone' _._ I figured she could use the books better than I."

"That was kind of you," Aurelia says. She feels her guard lowering. For all he has done to vex her, she cannot fault the honest warmth of Hudson. It compels her to ask;

"Why work in here? It feels… off. And there must be other places in the Citadel."

"Well like I said no one comes down here on account of that uneasy feeling it gives off," Hudson says with a chuckle.

"Hudson," Aurelia says sternly, catch his gaze directly. His chuckle dies. "What happened here?"

"Funny," he mutters. "I thought you'd come a lot sooner. I know you think I barred only your people, but I told _everyone_ not to come here. I was certain you'd be the first to test the rule. Master Link warned me about you. Said not to tick you off-" He raises a hand as Aurelia begins to speak. "I know, I know. I didn't listen. I failed in that regard...I failed in a few regards actually."

When Aurelia does not respond, he bows his head. "We don't know what happened here. We found skeletons here, but we found them everywhere in the Citadel. Well, we also found swords, and shields. Master Link thinks this place may be where the last Knights huddled, the ones that were injured fighting perhaps, or maybe just the ones that broke. He said that from the Citadel they would have seen their whole Kingdom burn. I can't imagine it...losing _everyone_ , and watching it happen."

"I can," Aurelia says without thinking.

"I know. Master Link told me. I'm sorry about what happened to your people. And, I'm sorry, about what happened with your friend. I didn't...handle it well. I'm new to this _Mayor_ business. But I am sorry."

"And if this keeps happening?"

"As you know, I have decreed that you can stay. There are still those who want you to leave, after this...bridge business."

Aurelia finds herself biting her lip. Kind of Hudson to gloss over how _Aurelia_ let the prisoners escape, though there is a hint of exasperation, of disappointment, rather than anger about the whole affair. He unrolls some plans on his desk and casts his eyes across them.

"A building never quite looks like its plan, but it's not the materials' fault. We are the ones that make the mistakes in trying to build something out of nothing. Once, in Tarry Town, we had built a whole damn house only to find a crack in the foundation. It had to all come down because of a mistake. Lost three weeks of work."

Hudson laughs to himself, meeting Aurelia's beguiled expression at this story. His face is softened now and reminding her, so lightly as to be no more than a passing thought, of the old researcher from her dream.

"When you fought those escaping prisoners...I saw you lay down your life to fix a mistake, and for that, I am truly grateful," Hudson continues. "Tough times are ahead, with the bridge...and now the snow… and the harvest shipment-"

"The harvest shipment?" Aurelia startles, recalling Rin's warning.

Hudson brings a hand to his head as if scratching for an answer. "A winter's worth of supplies. Probably got caught in this damned blizzard."

"And if it doesn't arrive?"

"It'll be a harsh winter. Too harsh. That is my fear. But...well, you're a leader too, so you understand. All I can do is keep my people informed, and hear what they have to say. Then maybe together we can figure this whole mess out."

He pats the papers on his desk and then sits down to work. Once again, Aurelia pulls Rin's mask from her belt. _Together_ , she thinks.

* * *

An idea has begun to form. A glimmer of hope. The swallowing of pride. But how, but how...

Again Aurelia descends down winding stairs, ever and ever deeper into the rock, and appreciates suddenly the stillness of Akkala Citadel. Karusa was much the same. They were sheltered there. Dust storms never reached them. Lizalfos never bothered them. When they had been flung from their home into Hyrule Castle - a place exposed to the open plains and haunted by ghosts - it could never have been made right. A place of refuge would always be needed by her people.

And yet...staying _here_ feels wrong. This place is cursed, ghost-filled. The way Hudson told it, the Citadel might never truly be healed. A refuge is all it is. Temporary, sheltering but...no one lives in refuge.

Aurelia catches herself. Shelter is enough, more than they could have asked for. It will have to do.

Still, she has an idea. A gathering, of sorts. Perhaps between her people and theirs. And...to admit to herself, and to her people, that she has not done a good job of hearing what they have to say. Stillness was what she needed to remedy this. Aurelia wishes she could hold herself as still as the Citadel, hold it all perfectly still. Maybe that way the courage would manifest in her to apologise to Rin.

With each step, Aurelia comes up with a new way to word it. She should not have assumed so much about him; she should have spoken to him about it, asked him about his past, asked him what _he_ thinks should be the way forward. She should have trusted him, trusted the man he has been these past months. The one who believed her impossible story of seeing visions. The one who wasted no time-fighting at her side. The one who loves his people without fear.

There was no way around it. She will find him and apologise.

Instead, she finds Hana, sitting vigil by Cejin's room. She keeps nothing with her but a candle and is dozing when Aurelia reaches her. "Hana?" Aurelia whispers.

Her sister shoots awake, nearly spilling hot wax all over herself. She stands up straight and begins shaking like a leaf.

"S-sorry! I'll head back to my cell!" she stammers. "D-don't tell Mara. Please!"

"Hey, hey, shh," Aurelia soothes, pushing her sister gently back into her seat. "Tell me what's going on." She has to stifle a laugh, surprised at her sister's boldness. Waiting on a boy? Sneaking out of her room?

"Oh...I…" Hana squirms. And then, the well breaks. Hana weeps, sobbing as she says, "Oh Aury, I have to talk to him. He's alive. He's getting better, and I can't bring myself to-"

"Hana. Slow down," Aurelia steadies her sister, a hand on each shoulder. With a smile, she says, "You mean...CJ?"

Hana blushes at his name, inconsolable now. "Is it my fault what happened? I want to apologise. But Mara said not to apologise too much since men don't like that-"

Aurelia scoffs. "Who cares what men _like_ -"

"But he was so badly hurt, I just want to tell him that I'm glad he's okay."

"Then tell him-"

"And that if something happened and it was my fault, how could I go on? Because I love him, I do. I do, Aury, I—!"

"Hey, hold up. Hold up. Look me in the eye," Aurelia stares down her sister. "You mean it?"

Blinking away tears, Hana rasps in a tiny, yearning voice, "I do, I think. I don't want to be wrong."

Relief surges through her. Aurelia laughs. "Oh Hana," she breathes. "You could rattle me less if you were with child."

"Aurelia!" Hana squeaks. "Don't! Don't joke about that!" She laughs, shaking now not from fear but joy. Aurelia is laughing too. She takes her sisters hand and squeezes.

"Why not tell him, hm?" she asks. "He'd be a fool to reject you."

"I don't know, Aury…" Hana says with a sniffle, drying her eyes.

"Here, I can help." Aurelia gestures for Hana to stand, and when she does, takes the candle from her. Then, before Hana can speak, Aurelia opens the door to Cejin's room and pushes her inside. Hana is too stunned to even react, stumbling almost statuesque through the door, and only when Aurelia begins to close it do her eyes go wide.

"Aurelia. AURELIA! HEY!" she calls. The door closes. Silence falls. Was that cruel? Hana is still her little sister, despite all they've been through - Aurelia must be allowed to torment her just a tad.

As she is about to walk off, there is a call from behind the door.

"Oh no...Aurelia, wait!" comes Hana's voice. "He's...oh no...Aurelia!" Her voice grows more and more panicked. "Aurelia, send help! Send help!"

The candle hits the floor. Aurelia bursts into Cejin's room and later discovers she has burnt herself on the hot wax.

The boy is on the floor, eyes white. His bed is not made, he is still dressed from earlier in the morning. Hana is at his side, repeating and repeating and repeating his name with growing desperation. When he does not stir, there is a heavy pause, and Hana falls still with a focus that chills Aurelia. Her sister's panic is gone; she sniffles, rolls up her sleeves and gets to work.

Grunting, Hana rolls Cejin onto his side, opens his mouth and checks he is breathing. She nods in short satisfaction. "He's alive."

"W-what happened?" Aurelia asks. Hana's sudden confidence has floored her.

"Could be an infection, then a fever. He fainted maybe, but this is worse. There's so little food, with the storm, we can't treat him as we should. He's not eating well."

"I'll go get Mara then."

"Yes, please do. Tell her to bring water, and vinegar if there is some. To wake him."

Aurelia is stunned. Her sister is a natural. A _healer_.

"Will you be okay here?" she can barely ask.

Hana scans the room. "He's got water. I'll try to wake him. Go, quickly."

Aurelia runs back up the stairs now, towards the kitchens. All her past fears are gone, now fixated on the only path forward. Hana's practicality has unlocked the rest of the idea that has milled in Aurelia's mind.

Once, maybe some months ago, there was time to talk. To sit with the Hylians in stillness and resolve their differences. But that time has passed. She must listen to her own kind first. They want to leave. They have been telling her in as many ways as they can without saying it; in their health, in their eyes, in their fates. And she has ignored them.

They have to leave. They _have_ to free themselves before it is too late. But how, but how, but how...

* * *

Mara is in the kitchens, supervising the youngsters as they prepare a stew. They peel potatoes and...just potatoes. It will be a thin stew. Hudson was not lying to scare her; the harvest shipment has not come.

When the situation is explained to her, Mara leaves young Tomoe in charge of the stew and hurries down to the Yiga cells. Like Hana before him, the youngster takes charge, not phased by the sudden responsibility. He checks the pot for boiling, has the younger ones gather the potatoes and drop them, carefully, into the water. Then they begin to clean. Jarrah spots Aurelia staring, marvelling at them. He smiles up at her. "Are you okay, Master Aurelia? Do you want to help?"

"You're doing just fine without me," Aurelia smiles back at him.

The children continue about their task happily and dutifully - their small but important task of making lunch. Aurelia looks down at her hands. She has her own task to finish. That is how she will help them.

She must see the rest of Maya's vision. The answer will be there.

But if she collapses, like the last two times, who will come for her? She has not seen Rin in hours. He is the only one who could understand and still he isn't here.

Crashing in through her thoughts comes a young Hylian man, thundering into the small dining hall attached to the kitchens. "Olwyn, Hart!" he calls out, startling two men on sitting in the corner of the room that Aurelia had not seen. They leap from their chairs.

"Whaddaya want!?" one of them calls.

"Practice, idiots!" says the Hylian, who Aurelia notices now is wearing the armour of the Knight recruits. "The Captain will have you running laps!"

 _The Captain!_

The two Hylians - who must be Olywn and Hart - turn pale and rush across the room to where their friend is standing at the doorway. They, too, are wearing the armour. One day they will be Knights if they can make it to practice on time.

Aurelia follows them, up and out to the summit, and ponders how without fail, the Hyrulean Knights are a constant source of hope.

* * *

It is still morning, and more snow has begun to fall.

Link's recruits, green though they are, are training fully-suited in their shining armour. He has them running basic drills, nothing too taxing, but she can see them struggling. He calls out orders, corrections, encouragement. "You have to fight _smart_ in weather like this!" he says. "Even a Hinox feels cold. Your strength is not enough. Shield up. Don't get sloppy!"

He does not see Aurelia approach, and none of the recruits pay her much mind. She watches like this for some time. The recruits that do well are those that seem to choose their actions. Those that find themselves knocked into the snow are the brash ones, swinging wildly as if to stave off the cold. Link is training them well.

When Link stops for a breath, Aurelia taps him gently on the shoulder. "This is quite a trial by fire you're putting them through," she says. "Or... trial by snow."

"Well, it is an all-weather job," Link laughs. He turns back to call out some more instruction, and then asks, "What'chyou doing up here?"

"Oh, sightseeing, mostly."

Link rolls his eyes, passing a glance out at where Aurelia supposes the horizon must be. The snow is so heavy that even Death Mountain's glow can barely be seen through it.

"The real answer?" he prompts.

"In a minute. I want to thank you for throwing yourself into that fight."

At that, Link gives her a genial look that says, _there is no need._ "I'm the Captain here. I have to protect everyone on this citadel. Plus, we're friends."

She regards his lazy smile. Link is, at all other times, marble and unreachable. Once in a while, the real person underneath is there too. She can see now why he is a Queen's perfect companion. Strong, and resolved, but real enough in a world full of pretenders.

Is that what Inglis is to her?

It doesn't matter. Aurelia doesn't want to think about it. She'll visit him later. Talk to him later. _Later_.

She sighs. "Do you remember what it was like back at the Castle? It seemed so much simpler, then. Just you, me and Inglis, looking after some old Sheikah relic."

"It wasn't that simple," Link frowns.

"No. It was not."

They stand in silence, both remembering how the apparent Hero of Hyrule had come to be captured by some Gerudo bandit in his very own Princess' castle. Aurelia later decided that he'd done it for the Queen or, Princess, at the time. Link could take blows that she could not, bleed in ways that she could not. When the time came to decide between trying to save them both, or sacrifice himself to keep her safe, how was it even a choice?

"How is the old relic by the way?" Aurelia asks. She doesn't want to think about Link's capture either, so she focuses on the one good thing that came of it.

Link raises a brow. "He has a name. And he's doing fine. He's at the Royal Academy now, Zelda's thinking of doing her thesis on him."

"He's _your_ Guardian, you didn't want him here?"

"I had to do what was best for him, even if it meant going our separate ways. Better than being here. Cooped up and snowed in."

The word echoes in Aurelia's head. _Trapped_.

"And the Queen," she asks. "Does she know what has happened here?"

"I can't get a message to her. No Rito will fly in this weather, and I won't risk sending a man out into that snow. And Zelda has the Sheikah Slate, so no hope there either. Listen, no matter what happens, I won't let them turn your people out. It would be murder."

She waves away his concern. "Enough pity. I have a favour to ask. Normally I wouldn't, but since you're here and it's convenient for me..."

Link's face grows gradually more sceptical.

"Nevermind," Aurelia sighs. "Can you go find Rin?"

"The footsoldier?"

"Just the one."

"Huh, I've been meaning to seek him out anyway. Thought he might be able to run a session for the recruits. Unconventional styles of combat, you know?"

"What, so your recruits will be able to beat my people in a fight?"

"No, I mean-"

"It's fine. He'd love it, seriously. Anyway, I'm going to go into that watchtower there. Go find Rin and tell him I'm here and that he needs to come right away."

"Why me?"

Aurelia bites her lip. "Because he will listen to you, even when he would not rather see me. Please, do this for me. And...tell him I'm sorry."

Link folds his arms. "What are you up to? What did you do?"

"Just trust me," Aurelia says.

His face no less sceptical, Link calls for his recruits to continue without him.

"And if I catch any of you slacking on my return, I'll be locking up one of the _two_ remaining casks of Wildwine in my cell!"

There is an audible groan from the recruits. Link and Aurelia share a firm handshake and then depart.

* * *

Everything is in place. She has everything she needs; theoretically. Standing in the broken watchtower, looking at the base of Akkala Tower, Aurelia does not need to search long for the mysterious cut that will deliver her one last time into the dream world.

She looks down at her hands, pulls off her gloves. She sees scars, the old ones, and the fresh ones too. Snow begins to collect on her skin, and melt.

 _Alright, Maya,_ she thinks. _Let's see how this story ends_.

* * *

 _I will not do this_

 _I will not I will not I w . . ._

Sounds first. Then hands and arms and then eyes. Back again. On the steps of Akkala Citadel. Yiga and Sheikah and Yiga again.

The dream begins much where the last left off. It is as if Aurelia never departed.

Her legs move slowly, sluggishly, as she climbs. Maya is holding back, just a little. She keeps pace with Iban, who is by her side, and Kahil, who is ahead, but she moves as if detached. It feels like rebellion, in its smallest and most personal of forms.

Once, she falls too far behind, and Iban seizes her by the arm, squeezing tight such that it hurts. "Keep up. Don't make this any worse."

" _You_ forgot the papers," Maya murmurs. The retribution comes hard and fast; a clap against the ear that nearly causes Maya to stumble. Aurelia wants to cry out, but Maya does nothing. She barely even winces, refusing to even rub the place where Iban hit her to dull the pain. Her brother's cruelty to her is something casual, Aurelia understands, and this brings her sorrow.

The researcher has stopped and turned. He does not hide his disgust.

Aurelia wants to leap forth from her host, take Iban by the collar and beat him blue; but Maya breathes, calms them both. Their anger is shared, Aurelia realises. Up ahead, Kahil has slowed and passes one more scowl back at Iban. Maya's brother hops lightly up the stairs and takes the researcher by the arm, Maya herself chasing after him.

"Remember, if you say anything, or make any kind of scene, it won't end well for you," Iban says. "Who will the Hylians believe? A batty old man from a dying tribe, or us, his calm and kind handlers trying to make sure he doesn't blow this whole place up with his magic?"

"You disgust me," Kahil says in response, voice low and eyes intense with the fury of a young man. Iban grips him tighter, struggling to keep his voice down as he says,

"You want to talk about disgust? What about how your people kicked my people out of your sacred lands, pursued us? How we were driven to the end of the world just to survive? Even the children?"

Kahil scoffs, "You cannot blame me for what you are. What _you_ have become."

Iban moves to hits the researcher but Maya steps between them. "Stop," she begs. "Fighting will draw ire."

The two men separate slowly, tensely, like cool lava, and the climb resumes. In some places, the stairs are not complete, and they must be winched higher up the mountain. Every time Maya looks up at the growing citadel, or down towards Hyrule, Aurelia tries to take in as much as she can. The kingdom below is not the same kingdom that she knows. Though there is a castle, and a city in front of it, the hills and the plains of Hyrule are dotted, in some places crowded, with houses and roads and people. She sees the Divine Beasts on the horizon and raised Sheikah Towers in the distance.

Wait. Sheikah Towers? It can't be, surely? Aurelia tries to recall with lucidity her understanding of the past. After the first Calamity, the Sheikah swore against their technology. They vowed to hide it from the world. _That_ , of all things, was why the Yiga and the Sheikah split. But there the Sheikah Towers are; in the desert, in the valleys, in the mountains and high into the sky, bright as summer stars.

Higher and higher they climb; towards the Sheikah tower within the mountain; towards a moment crucial to both her people and that of her rivals.

 _What happened here?_

The answer is coming, Aurelia knows.

They arrive at the summit, a place that has surprisingly changed little. Aurelia recognises the shape of the stone upon which she had stood that morning; sees the foundation work for the watchtower that now, in her time, stands crumbling.

There are few workers and fewer guards. All of the work must be below them, within the rock. At the summit, centre is a wide, shallow hole where excavation has taken place. Aurelia sees the tip of what must be a Sheikah tower emerging from the dirt. The lone royal guard assigned to this site greets them with a lazy salute. He does not ask for papers or credentials; the white hair of the three approaching visitors has identified them clearly and plainly.

Aurelia momentarily wonders about the guards that Iban killed back at the Akkala Span, and how he plans to pass back through the area to leave this place. A bridge to cross when they come to it, so to speak. If they ever do.

Kahil, still held by Iban at the arm, shakes himself free. "I'll do what I came here for if you don't mind."

Iban nods. "We can talk details later."

"Is that what you want then, details of my research? Evidence of this tower? Not _just_ here to kill then?"

Iban fumes silently at the gall of the old man. It is almost comical; a tiny, feeble researcher, barbed tongued and tormenting his much larger, taller and more dangerously equipped captor.

Kahil turns up his nose. "When you do it, do it fast and don't make a mess. Though, if my memory of your earlier years is correct, I fear I may be disappointed."

In front of the guard, and this out in the open, Iban can do nothing. He visibly shakes, eyes bulging with rage. Maya and Aurelia both find delight in this, and Aurelia feels the young woman bite down a laugh.

Kahil turns and approaches the hidden tower. He brings his hands to his chest, humming a low and ponderous tune. It grows in volume until it feels as though he is singing directly into Maya's ear. The lone guard must feel the same thing, for he has brought a hand to his ear, and regards the old man with nothing short of terror.

The song grows. It shakes the ground. The dormant tower awakens, bright glow rising from the ground. At once, Kahil is surrounded by an iridescent light, almost the same colour as the tower, and is surrounded by runic symbols that Aurelia cannot read.

With a _crack_ , the ground shakes, and the tower erupts upwards, breaking free.

Slowly, steadily, after the initial push, the tall Sheikah tower rises high into the grey Akkala sky. Maya watches it unblinkingly, mesmerised, as is Aurelia.

Aurelia herself recalls when the towers rose back in her own time. She was still living in Karusa Valley, and yet the tremors were felt even there. She had heard footsoldiers, and other bladed Yiga speak of the great rising towers, of how it could either be a good omen, or a bad one. But seeing it so close…

What a wondrous sight, yet one shunned by the world at some point. Her people had wanted to preserve it, did they not?

When it is done, Kahil turns. His face is at peace. He is ready. "I have fulfilled my duties. Whatever it is you wish to take, take."

Iban smiles smugly. "Good. Now show me how to lower the tower."

" _What!?_ " Maya and Kahil cry in unison.

"I said lower it."

"You can't _-_ " Maya begins.

"No!" Kahil insists. "The towers are vital! Without them-" he pauses, gives a small gasp as if the next words are unspeakable. "It doesn't matter. We made a pact. Your people agreed!"

"My people changed their mind."

In a flash, Iban has drawn his bow and looses a swift and lethal arrow into the lone guard watching them. The knight falls to the ground, understanding never registering on his face, and dies with his mouth agape.

"If you kill me, you will never get what you want!" Kahil warns.

Iban advances on the researcher, undeterred, stopped only for a moment by Maya, who gives chase. She grabs his arm but a surge of power - power Iban had not used until now - throws her backwards, and she tumbles across the stone. Through a haze of dust in her eyes and pain in her body, Aurelia sees Kahil hurriedly wave his arm in a flurry, summoning the shining runes once again. Iban is still too quick, and he knocks the researcher down with a powerful elbow to the chest.

"You think I kept you alive out of respect!?" Iban shouts, reaching down and grabbing Kahil by the scruff of his neck. "I will see the tower lowered!"

"I spoke only the first half of the chant," Kahil croaks. "The rest-"

"Was determined by _our_ researchers. Researchers who unlike you saw reason, and joined our side. They took no books, you didn't let them! So they pieced back together the chants of our magic with nothing but their memories."

Maya begins to rise, hauling herself from the ground. _Chants...Sheikah chants_...the understanding is slow, but when it grows so does the horror. Iban has studied their magic, gained it through some terrible ritual hidden from her. He knows how to lower the towers...he knows…

Maya takes a step towards her brother, and then another until she is running…

Iban continues, drawing a dagger from his belt, and holding it against Kahil's throat. "Their memories were clear. Your performance before confirmed it. They taught me the rest, and now I can use it. You were a key to a lock, Kahil, and now you have no use."

" _No! Stop!_ "

Maya throws herself against Iban, tackling him to the ground and wrestling his grip from Kahil. There is a flurry of wild punches and blows between the siblings, so dizzying Aurelia wants to vomit, but in a flash, it ceases. Maya closes her eyes, focuses for half a breath, and _disappears_.

Maya _teleports_ , as Aurelia had done on the summit of Akkala Citadel, as Rin had taught her to do - and appears in a bright wave of red light.

 _So it_ was _you_ , Aurelia thinks.

Maya opens her eyes and sees Iban recomposing himself, his face now flushed red with fury. She draws her sickle and leaps into the space between Iban and Kahil.

"You cannot kill him. You will not!" she cries. "And you will not lower this tower!"

She raises her sickle, but Iban has his Windcleaver at the ready. Steel meets steel, but brother and sister are matched in strength. Normally this would not be so, but so great is Maya's desperation, so sudden her surging rebellion - she stands against him.

"It must be done," Iban grunts. "The tower is a ward against Ganon. They all are."

Maya pushes against him. "Ganon is dead!"

Iban pushes back. "Not forever, and we cannot stand in his way. The towers are a necessary sacrifice!"

"No, I...I will not do this. I will not stand aside! "

"As you wish."

With all his strength, Iban pushes his Windcleaver forward against Maya's sickle, throwing her to the ground. She barely has enough time to stand, and raise her weapon to block his next blow. The steel rings, echoing across the empty summit. Where Maya begins to wear down, Iban does not relent. Each blow he lands she is only just able to parry, and each one he misses she can only just dodge. Once or twice she uses her magic again, zipping from spot to spot, disappearing and reappearing, but Iban's grip of their magic is like hers, and he gives chase.

Soon Iban is pushing Maya further and further back towards the risen Sheikah tower. It seems it will never end until one blow comes too fast. At first, it is silent, slicing through soft flesh and then metal. For a moment, Aurelia doesn't feel it. And maybe neither does Maya. She looks down and, wondrously, sees the polished Windcleaver impaling her against the mesh of the Akkala Tower.

And then, she lifts her eyes to her brother's face. His rage has not left him; he regards her with pure hatred, his blade held steady.

"The Yiga will live on," he whispers cruelly, and at last, pulls the blade free.

Maya slumps to the ground, the pain, at last, reaching her. It sears, nearly blinds her, but she cannot cry out. She cannot give her brother that.

Above her, taking her attention from the pain, she sees something mysterious in the metal. It is not a natural cut in the mesh but something... _else_.

The Yiga woman smiles, eyes fluttering, and at the last moment, Aurelia realises that for the first time...she is looking upon Maya's face.

She is seeing her, they are seeing each other - passenger and host - through the cut in the metal.

Across the clearing, Iban has returned to the researcher. The old man is still, at peace now. Iban has dealt with him in some way that neither Maya nor Aurelia sees. They cannot look anywhere but each other. This tiny, shared moment that defies both space and time puts them both at ease. All that Aurelia has seen is real. And while she no longer knows what Maya sees, she hopes that she understands _who_ she has seen. Aurelia hopes Maya knows; she has a witness.

Maya lies back and closes her eyes.

Iban begins to chant - the chant taught to him by his Yiga elders, and confirmed by Kahil to be correct - and the tower begins to lower into the darkness of the rock below. Aurelia, separated now, is taken with it. Breathless to the point of gasping, she descends. She descends, and descends, and descends...

* * *

Rin is there when she wakes. He is deep in meditation and does not seem to notice Aurelia rise until she speaks his name.

He opens his eyes slowly, and unceremoniously, he yawns. "Oh, good, you're awake," he says flatly. "Been hours."

Aurelia nods, but cannot find the muster to say much more. The dream is so fresh. She touches the place where Maya was wounded. Her own flesh whole and unharmed. But the vision was real. That was as certain as the sunrise.

To ground herself, Aurelia takes in the surroundings. She has been moved again, as Inglis moved her the previous time she went dreaming. This is not her room now, but something more of a makeshift infirmary. In the cot opposite her, a young man sleeps, bundled up in furs and a young woman sits at his bed. _Cejin...Hana…_

Her sister sees that she has awoken and rises quickly, but Aurelia shakes her head and gestures for her to remain. Hana, with some relief, slumps down at Cejin's side once more, taking his hand. The sight is sweet, too sweet. Aurelia wells with tears. _Her own brother_ , she thinks, unable to get the final images of the vision out of her mind. _Just like that..._

"Do you want to talk?" Rin asks quietly. He has noticed her demeanour, her unease.

"It was the dream I told you about," Aurelia whispers. "I saw the rest."

Rin nods, leaving a silent space for her to continue. He is not quite meeting her eye, his lips pressed into a thin line. Still mad. Aurelia has not apologised. And yet he came for her, brought her to safety….

Pulling the blankets up over herself tells him of the dream. The Yiga and the Sheikah, the rising tower, Maya's sacrifice and Iban's betrayal, and the truth...the terrible truth.

"Those first Yiga were...interlopers. They tried to destroy the Sheikah from within," Aurelia concludes.

"You think it was real?" Rin asks.

"On my life."

Rin frowns. "So we were always hated," he says, jaw clenched.

"Maybe. But, that woman, Maya…" Aurelia sits up, rubbing her palms, trying to stay focused. The answer is in there, in the dream, in her powers, it's so close.

"She stood against her own brother," Rin muses. "And for what?"

 _For what?_ "Because…" Aurelia begins. She looks over to her sister, her loving, caring sister, who is, like her, a descendant of Maya and Iban. And yet so different...

"Because she could," Aurelia says, finding her answer. "Because her past did not matter at that moment, only the injustice before her. Rin... that's the answer!"

Rin gives her a perplexed look; though he is still distant from their earlier fight, his guard breaks a little. "Go on."

"Did you ever get the full story of what happened at Hyrule Castle?"

This question takes him by surprise. Again he looks away, knowing the sensitivity of the subject. "From the others. I was told that a Gerudo, a former bladed-Yiga, Cinelgen, set a group of rebels and bandits upon Karusa Valley. There was...a massacre. And that he then took the remaining Yiga to Hyrule Castle, because the Princess was in hiding and was not there. But she drove him out, and _you_ killed him."

"You have the bones of it. But there is more."

Rin leans in, his face now close to hers and Aurelia realises they have been trading whispers. He has a scar, under his eye, she sees. She will have to ask him about it, about everything in his past that she has neglected. But not before she tells him of her own.

"Not long after we arrived, there was an automaton found, one of those enormous mechanical Guardians you see lying dead across Hyrule. But it was _alive_ , and it was _good_. It did not attack us on sight. If anything it was placid, like it was awaiting orders. We didn't know how to control it, or even who could, until one day the Hero and his princess arrived at our doorstep, trying to infiltrate the Castle. Zelda escaped, but Link was captured, and Cinna somehow convinced the _Hero_ to learn to control the Guardian. He had the Sheikah Slate and seemed to know how to use it, it made sense at the time. I was assigned his guard, as was Inglis. I was terrified at first. I wanted to run even when I first saw it. But...well, I couldn't embarrass myself in front of the Hero. I wanted to be strong. Cinna told me to make my sister proud so she could see what I had done when she returned. So I helped Link tame that Guardian. I did it for someone already dead."

"Aury, I'm sorry-"

"He killed her himself. As revenge. And still, I believed. I suppose we were all so prideful; the young acolytes of the Yiga, chosen to be the ones to take Hyrule Castle, that we ignored the horror of what had happened to us. Eventually, Link _did_ gain control of that Guardian, but in that time Cinna became obsessed. With Link, and with the Guardian. He seemed certain that _Link_ was the key to maintaining his rule. But, naturally, the Hero rebelled. Tried to escape and failed. And then one day, Cinna lost his temper. He spooked it. The Guardian lashed out. I was hit. I lost my..." she hesitates, and then gingerly, she taps the edge of her...wait, where is it? She doesn't have her eyepatch. It's sitting amongst the blankets, having at some point fallen off and been forgotten.

Rin says nothing. "I'm sorry…" he repeats eventually.

"But do you know what? I don't hate that old Guardian. In fact, I grew fond of it. I was proud to know that my people were founded upon the wish to see this technology preserved. I believed in us, for the first time in my life, I believed we could do good. When I fled, I thought at the time that I had given in to fear. But I think now, it was because I believed our people could start again, and be better. I wanted _this_ place to be that fresh start."

"Do you believe there's a place for us?"

His guard is gone. Rin asks this question honestly, with need, and dependence. _Turn inwards_ , Aurelia thinks. That is what they must do now and what both of them, and the rest of their people, need from each other.

"I do," she answers. "But in the dream was the missing piece; Maya fought back against whatever was corrupting the Yiga. She believed as well, in her people, in _us._ Yes, our people have done wrong in the past, but I don't want to apologise anymore, Rin. I won't wait for others to accept us. We are who we are, and we will do our part for Hyrule regardless of who approves."

She reaches for her eyepatch, but Rin is looking at her as though she doesn't have one. It stays among the blankets.

"I'm sorry about earlier," Rin says suddenly. "I forget myself, forget the pressure you are under. And, I happen to agree. You know I've always wanted us to be proud of who we are but…" He looks over his shoulder to where Hana sits by Cejin. She is running a damp cloth over his head, whispering to him. "I know you just wanted to keep us safe. I know why you wanted us to hide."

Aurelia smiles, the plan forming in her mind with clarity. "We won't be for much longer."

Rin gives her a weak smile. "Then tell me how I can help."

Aurelia opens her mouth to speak, but there is a rumbling up above them. The noise had been gathering for some time, Aurelia realises, but only now are they noticing it. Even Cejin has woken.

Hana looks over, concerned. "Something is happening up there."

Aurelia nods. Carefully, she climbs out of bed and pulls on her boots. Rin moves to help, but she raises a hand. "Stay here. Protect our people. I will go," she instructs him. In agreement, Rin places a hand on the sickle of his belt and stands to guard the door.

As Aurelia passes him to leave, she stops. "You know, it's funny, I've never told anyone that story. Never even spoken of it. And it's nearly been two years."

"Not even, you know…" Rin nods his head in the direction of the Hylian sleeping cells.

"No. He was there for most of it. He was there from the beginning."

"The beginning?"

She almost cannot say it, after all this time. "The massacre. Someone had to sneak Cinelgen in. He sent the Akkalan as a plant."

"An Akkalan named-"

"Inglis."

Rin looks at her a long and terrible moment. He mouths a final _I'm sorry_ , but the word means nothing anymore.

* * *

The gathering occurs in the dining hall. There must be two dozen of them, maybe three. A throng of riled up bodies, red-faced shouting, spittle in the air. Hyruleans in a panic. _Unseal the doors. Let us out, let us out!_

Stood at the end of a long table is Hudson, hair sticky with sweat and clinging to his broad forehead. His hands are empty, open, waved about to try and calm the crowd. Link and some of the other knights surround him, trying to keep the peace. None have drawn swords.

Aurelia unbuckles her scythe, leaving it by the door. She lets her hair fall across her face. They won't recognise her this way, not with this many in the room.

Carefully, she siddles around the edge of the crowd, until she can see Link's face. She catches his eye. _What is this?_ She mouths.

 _Go_ , he mouths back, shaking his head. _Please._

"This is for your own safety!" Hudson roars, barely raising his voice above the crowd. "It must be done! Leaving this Citadel would be suicide, and we must keep the chill from reaching us!"

"What about the scouts!?" shrieks a woman in the crowd. "My boy, Julien, is among them!"

"My husband was posted to the Akkala Span," another woman adds. "Where will he go?"

"They can go to the nearby stables, or to Tarrey Town," Hudson answers.

"They will die," the old woman shouts. "They will die because of you."

"That's enough," Link barks, but the woman does not calm.

"On your hands!" she shrieks. "My boy, my son!"

One of the young knights steps forward, and with a gloved hand shoves the old woman backwards into the crowd. She wails, falling, and this sets the onlookers into an amok. They scramble forward, reaching for the young knight, clawing, punching, and he reaches for his sword in retaliation. Before his steel can be raised, however, he is hauled backwards and is himself thrown to the ground, out of reach of the crowd - by the Captain of the guard himself.

"Stand down, you idiot!" Link orders to young knight, furious. "Stand down!" He steps forward towards the crowd, stern and steel-faced, defying them to pass by the Hero of Hyrule.

"What about the harvest shipment?" a Rito says, and by his distinctive uniform, Aurelia recognises him as different from the other Rito. He is a courier, stranded here, no doubt. He towers above the other Hylians, and his tin-like voice carries clearly.

No one has answers, not even Hudson, though the Mayor's anxious face gives him away. It isn't coming, not now. The crowd repeats the question, loud and louder. _Well?_ They ask. _Where is it?_

"Delayed, for now," Hudson says at last. "That is all I can give you!"

"And when the food runs out!?" asks the Rito.

"It will not. I know it isn't good news. But maybe we need all eat a little lighter. I wish this were not the case. I know there are children here," Hudson begins to flounder. He had told Aurelia that he wanted to keep his people informed, but being the bearer of bad news is never easy. "This storm will pass," Hudson continues, his voice fading. "I assure you, it will pass. But until then-"

The Rito's voice again cuts through the air. "Why won't you do the obvious!?" he chides. "Evict the Yiga. Send them back to the desert. They are not from here."

"That's enough of that," Link interjects.

"They _burnt_ the bridge! They are the reason we are in this mess," the Rito continues. For a moment he meets Aurelia's eye but does not seem to recognise her. His glare is powerful, strong, but not malicious. _They are afraid, all of them_.

"None of us are from here!" Hudson says. "We are all settlers, the Yiga included."

"They've already got a homeland," argues the old woman, now recovered. She stands eye to eye with Link himself, and addresses him directly, "Why can't they go back there?"

"They made a pact, and we agreed to accept them. We cannot abandon them," Link answers.

The old woman rolls her eyes. They have all heard this before; Aurelia has heard this before. Dozens of times. She wishes it were that simple, even as her own chest aches at this retaliation against her people. She wants to lash out. She wants to argue, scream in their faces. _I am a person, I am a Hylian, a Hyrulean too._ But this crowd, these people...they will not listen to words anymore. They are afraid. They need action. Aurelia looks down at her hands; thinks of the dream; of Maya.

"If the food runs out, what will your compromise be, Mayor?" the old woman demands. "Your own people, or those traitors?"

These people need someone to do what their Mayor cannot, what their Hero cannot. To do what only Aurelia can.

She pushes forward, passing by Link, and climbs onto the table. She pushes back her hair from her face, revealing her missing eyes, her scarred face, her crooked jaw. "There will be no compromise," she roars. She shouts with every living fibre, every pent up and unspoken remark. She screams it - and for a moment, just long enough - the crowd is hers. "I will go alone to seek help, and I will deliver it to you. The people of this citadel will not starve."

"And how will you do that!?" someone cries.

"Yes, Master Aurelia. How will you do that?" Hudson repeats.

Aurelia feels the power in her blood. There is a way, but it will be too hard to explain. "What is safer for this people, tell me honestly," she says to Hudson. "Evacuating, or keeping them here?"

"Our walls are strong and our people resilient. All they need is the food."

Aurelia nods. This is all she needs to hear. She turns to the waiting crowd.

"I know you don't trust me, but I have it in my power to save you."

"You think that will be enough to atone, Yiga?" the Rito challenges.

"You decide that for yourselves. I'm only trying to do what is right."

She looks back to Hudson, who by his shocked expression is having difficulty parsing the unfolding scene. She steadies him, a reassuring hand on her shoulder, trusting him and asking for trust in return.

"Give me three days," she says.

Aurelia marches out into the hallway, to descend the stairs to her people and make her preparations. But as she does, she passes the cells where the Hylians sleep. Within them, is a door she must pass through, and then close. And hopefully, for the final time.

* * *

The room is dark, lit by a single candle. It flickers as Aurelia closes the door, and she sees her shadow against the wall. It is small and thin. She steps carefully across the cold floor and takes a seat on the wide and sturdy bed.

Inglis' eyes do not open, but he stirs and then smiles when she takes his hand.

"I knew it was you," he murmurs, slowly, deliberately. "Quiet as a cat."

"I was told you needed rest."

"I'm glad you came anyway."

Aurelia says nothing and at last Inglis opens his eyes. He sighs and rolls, groggily, onto his side to face her. In the low-light, she can only just make out the shape of his eyes. They're dark but gentle and round. He wears no shirt, and peeking above the covers is a thickly woven bandage. She wants to kiss him suddenly. She wants to hold him, draw him close, heal him if she can. She wants to run a hand through his hair and forget. But Aurelia pauses and breathes in deep. It has to be done. The words have to be said.

Until Inglis speaks for her;

"Do you remember the first time we went down to the beach?" he says. "You'd been in Akkala all summer, but I'd only just arrived. You'd never seen the sea. I'd never been swimming so-"

"We went in together," Aurelia says. The memory is warm, filled with filtered light. It calms her just enough to laugh. "We almost drowned."

"But we didn't."

"No, no we didn't."

Aurelia struggles against it. She has to focus. But it's so enticing to remember. Inglis leading her down to the eastern shores of Akkala. Walking together, laughing, picking shells and running through the sand. They wanted to talk. They had a shared past, they had loved the same man, been betrayed by him too. They wanted to talk. But they also wanted to swim. They stripped down to their undergarments and ran in together, leaping and tumbling through the rushing waves. Aurelia loved it so much she refused to come to shore. She _ran_ , splashing through the water as Inglis tried to catch her. And when he did, he kissed her too. It was so sudden the way he loved her; Aurelia simply gave in.

They dried off, found a soft patch of grass and made love by the sea. But never talked, like they'd planned. They had never truly talked since.

"We got through it," Inglis reminisces. "We got through it together. And we will this time."

He is smiling, but Aurelia is not. She lets go of his hand.

"I'm sorry," she whimpers. She tastes salt tears on her lips; how long has she been crying?

"Aurelia?"

"Not together, Inglis."

His face twists. He reaches for her hand, but it is not there, instead tucked under her thigh to keep from shaking. Aurelia collects her words, and for a minute they sit in silence. Finally, she says,

"It has become my profession to sieve the past. It's all I do, and it's all to try and keep the Yiga alive. Some things stay, and some things go."

"I don't understand," Inglis says, shifting irritably in the bed.

"That day, on the beach, I befriended a kind man, the devoted sort, who'd had a hard life."

"What are you talking about-"

She ignores him, and continues, "Before that, we lived in Karusa Valley together, when this man was a recruit. _The Akkalan_ , they all called him, because it was so rare to get one in the Valley. But before that, the Akkalan had once been an ordinary man, whose village was ransacked, and who was taken in by a Gerudo because he had nowhere else to turn. This Gerudo sent him to the Yiga, to pose as a recruit. And then one night, half a year later, this Akkalan snuck the Gerudo into a feast in our great hall of Karusa, and he watched as this Gerudo massacred my people, including my sister."

"Aurelia, you know I am sorry, so, so sorry, more than I could ever-"

"And I think that I could love this Akkalan man. He has atoned, he has become a Knight. He suffered abuse at the Gerudo's hand as much as I. So maybe, if we were different people, if I were no one," Aurelia wipes away her tears, letting her voice grow cold and stern else she lose control of it. "But I am not _no one_ anymore. So I cannot love you, Inglis. Do you understand?"

He sits up slowly, face forlorn.

"You can't ever forgive me?" he asks.

"I could. But I am choosing not to."

"So you don't think...could we still be friends?"

Aurelia lets her tears flow freely. Her voice cracks. "How could we ever be friends?"

* * *

The wind is howling high now, such that it can be heard even from deep within the rock. The storm outside has intensified. It could be weeks before it passes. Maybe longer. The pot was sealed and if it boiled over…

Each heavy footfall punctuates the darkening thoughts. Aurelia falls back towards the Yiga cells. She is doubt entirely, until she sees them.

Waiting on the steps, in the hallway, by the doors, eyes up, waiting for her. The Yiga, her Yiga. Rin stands at the front. Hana is nowhere to be seen; likely with Mara, tending to Cejin.

Precocious Dimitre, Mara's younger brother, pushes forward. "Well, what did they say?"

"What's going to happen to us?" adds Ruth, another youngster.

"Let Master Aurelia speak," barks Ocre. He is cradling his daughter, and quickly looks down to make sure she does not stir.

Aurelia surveys them. No more than a dozen and a half. Open-faced. Stripped of everything they once were. The Last Yiga of Hyrule.

She meets Rin's eye. His lips raise; a hopeful, peacemaking smile. He forgives her, and she him.

"Nothing is going to happen to us," Aurelia says. "But, everything too, if my plan goes the way I hope."

"Plan?" Rin asks.

Aurelia regards her people with a smile. "Why don't we go to our quarters, talk this out. I want to hear what you think of my plan. But first…"

Her people wait without breath. The idea is clear now, fully formed. She only needs their blessing. "Do we have any paint left?"


	9. The Rise and Fall of the Yiga, Ch 4

**And Stand**

The moment the sun rises, there is a call outside the Hylians' quarters.

 _Unseal the doors. Unseal the doors._

The howling wind has calmed, but snow still falls. The heavy stone doors at the main entrance into the Citadel have almost frozen shut. Icicles creep through in long thin lines like climbing ivy. The low hum of the storm can be heard at all times, from any depth.

Still, the call comes. _Unseal the doors_.

Mayor Hudson of Akkala Citadel emerges, only just dressed, from his modest though comfortable sleeping cell. He is immediately flanked by Royal Guard Captain Link, and a handful of other royal knights. The sight that greets them in the stairwell of Akkala Citadel almost sends Hudson withering back to his bed.

Two Yiga stand before him in full garb, wearing bright red and white masks painted with that unnerving single eye. One is tall, broad-set. He carries a long sword over his shoulder and wears his black hair high in a bushy ponytail. The other is smaller, clearly a woman. Yiga too, though one feature distinguishes her from the others - golden blonde hair, worn long and shining even in the low light.

"W-what do you want?" Hudson croaks. "Is...is that you-"

"Unseal the doors," repeats the smaller figure, and Hudson knows the voice. It _is_ her; Master Aurelia, standing with her companion - Rin, is it?

Link raises a hand to his Knights - _stand down_ \- and asks, "What are you planning to do out there?"

Aurelia turns her head to look at him. The single eye is interrogating. But her voice is calm. "You will see," she says.

From below, there is a low, pulsating noise. Slow, and steady. It grows, gradually until it is clear and echoing through the inner walls of the Citadel.

"What is going on?" Hudson demands.

"Unseal the doors," Aurelia demands back.

The echoing grows, becomes rhythmic, deliberate. All listen, and it soon becomes clear - the sound they hear is marching. The footfalls are louder and louder on the inner stairwell, and they rise and rise until it feels like the Citadel is shaking. Curious residents begin to emerge in the hallways and in the stairwell. They crane their necks out their doorways to try and parse what they hear. None are certain of what it is - until they see.

"Unseal the doors," Aurelia repeats. From below, Hudson finally catches a glimpse of the approaching marchers - Yiga, maybe a dozen or two, all wearing masks as Aurelia does. They look freshly painted; the red eyes are crisp and clear. They march side by side, two by two, and stop just behind Aurelia. They fill the stairwell behind them, standing still and steadfast.

The message is clear: they will not move.

Hudson meets the eye painted on Aurelia's mask. All wisdom would tell him to refuse - but he knows this woman. He does not know what she intends, but she would not willingly lead her people outside if it meant their death. Whatever her plan, however foreign to him, Hudson decides to trust her. He nods to Link.

"Unseal the doors," he orders.

* * *

Hudson oversees the operation, a true foreman, as three Hylians, a Rito, and a Goron, heave open the doors of Akkala Citadel. The ice holding the doors closed slips and shatters, and a crack opens. Icy winds shoot through the gap in an unseen, biting lance of cold. The assembled team spring away from where the winds come and all pass a concerned look back at the Yiga waiting for them.

Aurelia senses their doubts, but she has expected them. She raises a hand, holding up two fingers.

"We ask you to join us - you have two minutes to dress warmly, and then we will be heading outside."

None say anything - not even Hudson. Instead, the Akkalan Mayor nods to those around him and returns towards his sleeping cell. The Yiga, still standing two by two, part down the middle to let the others pass. One standing at the front separates from them, lifts his mask, revealing a scarred face and rich, brown eyes.

"So far so good," he remarks a little nervously. Aurelia feels it too - more than all the others combined - but she cannot acknowledge it. There is simply no room in her mind for fear at this moment.

"Are you ready?" she asks Rin, lifting her own mask. He stands on a stair lower than her, eye to eye.

"Of course."

"This isn't swordplay," Aurelia warns. "Far from it. The Hyruleans will be on guard."

"I know," Rin takes a deep breath, no doubt recalling their long conversation from the night before. "You promise you'll come back?"

"Of course. Assuming I make it across."

Her companion pales. "You sure you don't want a paraglider."

Aurelia laughs and ignores the way her breath seems short. "I'll be fine. I'll have to be."

The Yiga begin to part again as Hudson and the others return. From what Aurelia can see, he has many a curious Hylian and Hyrulean in tow. Rin notices reaches for his mask, but Aurelia stops him. Placing her hands on his shoulders, she kisses him. Lightly, quick and perfunctory as though they were long-time lovers. Barely more than a peck.

"Just in case," she whispers. Rin blinks up at her, a giddy smile growing on his face. He cannot speak, and neither can Aurelia. There are more pressing matters. They share a look that binds them in the promise: _we'll talk later_. Aurelia pulls her mask back down, and Rin follows suit.

At last, Hudson reaches the top of the stairs. Link and the other royal knights join him, as do many of the residents. Aurelia gestures for them all to follow her outside, and with little reluctance they do, joining the line of Yiga in their march.

The wind has not relented. It sends a chill through Aurelia, but she does not let herself feel it. There is no turning back.

She has not slept. Neither has Rin or many of the Yiga. They spent the night painting the masks they now wear. Aurelia thinks of her sister, tending to Cejin still tucked up in bed and the youngsters that she has left within the Citadel. She is glad they are safe, far from the cold.

The Yiga march out onto the summit. Akkala Tower gleams even in the snowstorm. Finally, they form a half circle behind Aurelia and Rin, blocking the pathway that leads down the Citadel to its now broken bridge. They turn to face the Hylians looking on the ridges and balconies above. More have behind to stream out of the Citadel, even in the ferocious weather, to witness the spectacle.

"Hudson," Aurelia calls, beginning the performance. "You have been kind to us. Your hospitality has allowed us to rest and recoup. I won't deny our name carries with it so much pain for this Kingdom. I want that to be over. I want us to have a place in Hyrule, though I believe now that this is not it. I tried to tolerate the hatred, I tried to understand it, justify it by my own failures. But we want to live in peace, and will not apologise for doing so." She gestures to the barricade behind her. "This is who we are. The Yiga of Karusa Valley. Remember that when help comes."

Hudson looks down on her, mouth agape and without understanding. "What are you doing!?" he demands.

"Nothing," Link answers, and he is correct. The Yiga do what no one has ever seen them do: they stand united and stand peacefully. They are a people. Link sees this now; sees what she wants him to see.

"They must be doing something."

"They aren't," Link reiterates. He raises a hand, points to something Husdon has not seen. "But she is."

Aurelia has broken away from the others, marching swiftly as she can now down the stairs towards the broken bridge. She feels her hands begin to warm. She feels the scars on them hum, ready, waiting.

She measures the end of the bridge. Ten paces. Should be enough.

She takes the paper from her belt. _Maya_ , _Hana,_ she has written. _Rin._ _Home. Peace_. Parts of her. Let the paper hold, and let your form be flexible.

She gives one last look at her people, and the people in Akkala - all those who will die if she does not make this choice. Clutching the paper tight, she runs forward, and where crossing becomes chasm, she leaps.

* * *

How can I even begin to describe it? Despite it all, you only feel two things; the rise, and the fall. The rest, you have to go in blind.

The rise is the easiest part. Simply jump, and hope. Goddess, you have to hope. Then, the fall - what an awful feeling. But you just take that feeling; the sinking, creeping, deathly feeling, and ...use it. Turn it _forward_. Part of you is anchored, and the rest of you is free. I pulled through that feeling and then, there I was.

Four hundred feet from where I was a split second ago. Falling, and falling, and landing, entirely alive, on the other side of a bridge that was not there. And it was all thanks to you, and the power that we share.

Do I believe you can hear me? I don't know, really. But I have to find a way.

I have to believe in you and believe in impossible things, and an impossible future for our people where all that has come before is just a foolish, blind leap of faith. I have to believe we can land.

I am sorry, for the way your story ended. I wanted to tell mine because I hoped it would bring peace to yours. I wanted you to know - there was an epilogue.

So I am here, Maya. I am your memory. And I will not let what you have given me be in vain.

* * *

It is a strange sight for the onlookers.

A Yiga woman leaps across the broken bridge of Akkala Citadel as though she has wings. For a moment she appears to fall, but then - a _flash,_ and a burst of red energy. As though nothing has happened, she appears on the other side of the chasm and lands cleanly in the snow.

When she takes off her mask, she reveals herself.

The one-eyed mage, the girl, marked by Hylia. Aurelia of Karusa Valley. Master of the Yiga. She wears no eyepatch anymore.

Stowing the mask at her belt, Aurelia performs the feat of magic again and disappears altogether.

At this, the Yiga all throw down their masks. Their faces are steadfast and assured. They link arms.

The Hylians in their ancient citadel aren't quite sure what to make of all this. Below them, the Yiga have maintained their barricade, but one splits off from them. He carries a long, fine blade over his shoulder. The Hylians tense. This man should be their enemy, but they are all under strict orders from the Hero of Hyrule: no hostility.

The man removes his mask and introduces himself as Rin of Karusa Valley. The Hylians visibly shrink, except the hero, who shakes his hand.

"Master Aurelia has appointed me as acting Chief of our clan in her absence," Rin tells them. "It is true, I am a bladed-Yiga, but I have renounced my previous ideals of resurrecting Ganon and bringing down the Royal Family."

"Ain't that good to hear?" Hudson squeaks.

Rin continues on. "While she is away, she asks that the Yiga be treated with respect. When she returns, we will depart."

"To _where_?" Hudson asks. "In this weather?"

"We have heard of the colony of mages growing on the Great Plateau. We hope a new home will renew us. But, as was promised, Aurelia is bringing help."

Link smiles curiously. "Help?"

"The Winged God. The one you know as Medoh."

* * *

 _One day later_

Light snow is falling in Kakariko Village when the lone rider cantors in through the southern gate. The rider seems to bring a breeze with them, rattling the _shema_ chimes as they pass.

The rider dismounts by a cherry tree, tying their horse there and leaving it to graze. It is early morning, past dawn, though Kakariko is still lain in darkness by the high peaks that surround it. Few townspeople are out, but for those that are, the rider immediately puts them on alert.

Their cowl hides their face, and their flowing pale coat is wrapped up tight - but at their waist is a smooth and well-sharpened sickle. It catches the light as they move, no effort made to hide it. The rider sheds their cowl and unravels a long mane of golden hair. It is a woman. A Yiga woman; here, in a Sheikah village.

It cannot be so - the last time this happened was during the civil war. The bloodshed is still in firm memory. And this particular Yiga woman...they remember her. She approaches the central house, eyes down.

"Halt, leave this place," barks one of the guards, Cado. He holds out a firm hand, the other on his sword.

"Give us a single reason not to strike you down now," demands the other, Dorian. Her missing right eye confirms her identity to the Guards - they must not let her through.

The woman smiles, amused by their aggression. She speaks low and deliberate.

"Go inside and tell your elder my name. If she refuses, I will leave."

"No, leave now," says Cado, voice growing louder.

"You cannot be here," adds Dorian, louder still.

The woman does not match their tone. "But I _am_ here. Please, just go speak to Lady Impa. It has been a while since we met, but I think she will remember me."

" _I_ remember you," Dorian spits. "You brought your squabbling to us, you let that miscreant nearly burn down our home."

"And do you remember how I also drove him away, saving this village? Do you remember how Lady Impa thanked me? Or that it was I that eventually put down this _miscreant_?" She puts a hand on her sickle. "I did it with this blade, and pray I never need so such a thing again. Please, I do not want to speak of this. Go and talk to your Lady."

The guards seem alarmed by the woman's openness. She sighs, clearly weary. Her horse neighs.

"You will leave immediately, should our elder request it," Cado says, and he turns to climb the stairs.

Not five minutes pass and Aurelia is standing before Lady Impa herself.

"Master of the Yiga!" Impa laughs, her heavy chains rattling. "I did not expect to ever see you _here_."

"Storms like these bring strange allies," Aurelia smiles.

"I would think any ally is strange for a Yiga."

"I hope to make that change."

The woman's granddaughter stands beside her, lips pressed together and silent. Paya, Aurelia could never forget her name. It was Paya who convinced the Sheikah that Aurelia meant no harm, that she rode in pursuit of Cinna rather than rode with him…

In the shadows lurks a Sheikah man, who Aurelia remembers with regret. Grante, Aurelia recalls. Cinna took many prisoners; this one's father happened to be an expert on Guardians. But he took them both for good measure.

" _Have_ you changed then?" Grante says as he steps forward, revealing himself to be an archetypal Sheikah - white hair, sharp features, open, inquisitive eyes.

"I believe I have," Aurelia answers. "And I believe you never got an apology."

"Cinelgen is dead. Father and I escaped his capture. Bygones be bygones."

"We can only hope."

There is a lull, as they jointly remember - the scars left on them all by one man, one conflict. Impa shifts, chains tinkling. She passes Grante a stern eye and looks back to Aurelia. "You have not come here to discuss the dead, have you?"

Taking a deep breath, Aurelia lets Cinelgen go - and turns towards the present.

"Akkala Citadel is snowed in, without food, and it's only bridge destroyed by a member of my own clan," she explains. "But I intend to repair things."

"Why come here then?" the elder's granddaughter says, speaking suddenly.

"Our people have always been independent of things, haven't we? It should stay that way. We can help each other. I only need a small favour from you."

Impa nods. "We are listening, Master Aurelia."

Speaking slowly, Aurelia tries to recall all the things she practised on her journey to the village - from the leap, arriving at Akkala Stables, hiding her sickle in order to buy a horse and riding fast as she could towards Necluda. All the while she had formed the words to bring to the Sheikah.

"The Citadel has little time. But the Queen has her Sheikah Slate. She can cross the Kingdom at a whim, as can her Beasts. And so...my request of the Queen is not small, but I offer something in return, to you and her both. I need your word to her that my offer is genuine."

The elder considers this, statuesque and revealing nothing. She nods again. "Go on, show us."

Aurelia holds out her hand to Paya and speaks directly to the girl.

"Magic is returning to Hyrule. Yet it is lost to your people, no?"

"Many years ago," Paya answers.

"Not to the Yiga, and soon not to the Sheikah. Our power is unique, I've realised. Never gained, only shared. But only if you want it."

Aurelia expects the girl to turn to her grandmother, to seek approval. But her eyes remain on Aurelia, and after a moment's consideration she says, "It is my duty."

They join hands, holding each other by the forearm, and Aurelia lets her power flow. The Sheikah girl begins to shake, her eyes clouding over. After a minute, she blinks and her awareness returns, though she speaks in a faraway voice.

"What _was_ that?" Paya whispers, looking down at her hands. " _That dream_?"

"An ancestor of ours. Proof of hope. We can be her legacy," her voice drops to a whisper. "Come to the Plateau, there are others like us."

The Sheikah girl wipes away her tears, mouths a resolute _yes_. She is changed now, as Aurelia is. She turns to her grandmother.

"Give her what she wants."

* * *

 _Three Days Later_

The Akkalans awake to the sound of a great and divine bird.

Footsoldier Rin rises wearily to the commotion, dresses, and rouses the other Yiga. It is time, he tells them.

They hear it before they see it; the drumming of propellers that batters the air. Out from the heavy clouds, steady and slow, appears _Vah Medoh_ , its wide wings covering the sky. It lands on the side of the Citadel, its huge claws with just enough purchase, and bow of the ship opens to reveal that which is carried within.

The Hylians and Yiga gather together. Hudson soon pushes to the front. His mouth drops open.

There are more boxes than can be counted, and barrels too. All stuffed with food. There are gasps, and cheering behind him. The harvest shipment is here! We are saved! They begin unloading the boxes as fast as they can. _Vah Medoh, Vah Medoh,_ someone is cheering, _the Beast has saved us._

But not the Beast alone, Rin knows. Out from amongst the shipment emerges three figures.

First is a woman who Rin has never seen, only heard of. She wears a long navy coat embroidered in gold and silver but paired with riding clothes and slightly muddied boots. She wears no crown, but her crown of braids tells of her royalty instead - Queen Zelda, come to visit the beleaguered people of the Citadel and bring them the shipment that will see them through the winter. Behind her stalks, a towering white Rito, wearing across one shoulder a rippling cyan and blue scarf. He must be one of her Champions, though Rin does not know his name. He stays on the ship to watch.

And behind the Rito is the only person Rin was hoping to see - Aurelia, smiling and returned, with a hand outstretched.

"Come on then, don't just stand there," she calls to him. "This ride is for us!"

At her behest, Rin takes her hand, and steps onto the ship. When he turns to look back, Hudson has seen them. He mouths a _thank you_ , and returns to his own people.

The rest of the Yiga gather, more and more taking the first step on Vah Medoh - the children gleeful, squealing. Hana arrives soon, leading Cejin by the hand, and then Mara and her little ones, and then Ruth and Lee, Khea too. Sahn and Ocre are behind them, cradling their newborn. Laughing and murmuring with excitement, the Yiga board the Divine Beast - taking the next step in their long journey home.


End file.
